Have you every stopped to wonder what would happen to you if you dumped your smart phone? No more WhatsApp groups, no social media, no googling, no maps. Just a phone for calls and text and nothing else.
This is the question Panos Kandunias asks in his one man show which tells the story of Charlie, an almost 27-year-old gay man who has become sick of shuffling and buys himself a flip phone in an attempt to address his 5 hour a day addiction to his now ditched smart device.
I Bought a Flip Phone is a passionate exploration of modern digital burnout and the perpetual feeling that life is on hold. It is the very engaging story of a young man searching for deeper and more personal connections with his fellow humans.
The staging is sparse. An empty stage with a simple bench and table and one prop – a flip phone. Simple, almost stripped bare, and over the course of the next hour we are charmed, enchanted and persuaded by a story in which Charlie exposes the bare and simple details of his life; his desires, his neurosis, his deeply held feeling that he is not the central character in the story of his own life and his deep-seated fear that he is getting life ‘wrong’.
Kandunias is funny, at times, very funny, and the connection he makes with the audience is instant and magnetically sustained. His conversational/confessional style is very engaging, openly vulnerable and utterly charming. The script is smart, well-paced, clever and honest and you cannot help but like Charlie very much. As he attempts to bring his kith and kin together to celebrate his upcoming birthday, he explores the relationships that are most important to him and his own sense of isolation and loneliness. The questions he asks about modern life and relationships are earnest and thought provoking because through the example of his own life he subtly shows us how entrenched we can be in neurotic and angsty behaviour to the detriment of our mental health.
What I found so clever about the piece is that it is the flip phone that reveals who he really is. The texts from friend, the calls from work, the devastatingly nuanced phone conversations with his mother, all worked beautifully… and the phone call that didn’t come. The one from Tate, the lovely, chatty, confident man he met in a pub and struck up a conversation with, rather than a superficial connection on Hinge, and from whom he so desperately wished to receive a call, have a chat, get to know… our hearts sort of broke a little for him as his disappointment emerged and his depression was gradually revealed.
I feel sad. I feel lonely. I feel tired. Everything sucks. I want to be happy. Take one of these declarations on their own and they can have little effect – we can all make throw away low mood comments. Put them all together and there is a good chance there is a problem and that final penny drop moment for the audience was touchingly felt.
I found Kandunias’ exploration and exposure of Charlie’s beautifully written story both compelling theatre and skilfully performed. Excellent.
Reviewer: Lou Kershaw
Reviewed: 11th September 2024
North West End UK Rating:
Rating: 5 out of 5.
