Kelemen Kristóf

Some Viewers May Find This Distracting

Trafo passes are accepted

documentary theatre

#screen time #capitalism #agitators

You won’t believe what’s about to unfold on Trafó's Main Stage!

Lines like this one are designed to take control of our focus on the internet. We’re bombarded with them from every angle while algorithms geared at our most primal emotions drive us to keep burning through a seemingly infinite stream of content – all to keep us glued to a handful of specific online platforms for as long as possible. Our attention has become the oil of the 21st century, and every single second of it is fought over – not only by cosmetics advertisements and holiday photos but by mass-produced political messages and social campaigns too. Our perception of reality is conditioned by those who can get their message across in the most piercing way.

Through the personal stories of experts as performers, Some Viewers May Find This Distracting is a documentary theatre piece that focuses on the hidden mechanisms of the online realm, how we can find a voice in it, and the commodification of attention. All this is done through the medium of theatre, where the audience is granted the rare luxury of focusing on one thing only: events that unfold on an empty stage.

Drawing on Bertolt Brecht’s play ‘Die Maßnahme’ (The Measures Taken), the potrayed experiences of a journalist, a TikTok influencer, an Instagram blogger, a podcaster, an actor and an activist invite us to reflect on what it means to be an agitator of our time, fighting for a more just society within the online realm that was once about freedom and the accessibility of information and has since become the playground of Big Tech. On what terms can an idea be granted visibility under these circumstances? In what way is global capitalism moulding the discourse of an Eastern European autocracy? Can the hegemons of the internet be tackled, outsmarted – and if so, how? Staying true to the spirit of Brecht, we attempt to remind the audience of the simple truth that our perception of reality can be altered, especially in the age of the internet.