Just writing something nasty about someone can’t cause them real injury… can it?
Robin Ince’s contribution to this season of audio chillers is a few minutes longer than its predecessors, which allows for a prelude (which perhaps might have benefitted by being a pre-title sequence) set in the days of witch hunters before moving to the present day. While its central idea of something being called into existence as the result of malicious and nasty gossip is a strong one, the play overall doesn’t quite gel – it feels more as if we’re witnessing scenes from a story, rather than the whole tale. The links between past and present could be emphasised more than they are, with the focus more firmly on either the internet troll or his victims, rather than trying to balance the two.
That’s not to say it isn’t an enjoyable piece of hokum, which is put across well by the cast, and the sound effects – which have to carry a bit more of the story on this occasion than previously – are well thought through. Perhaps if it had been ruthlessly edited into the half-hour slot, it might have been felt more focused.
Verdict: Some good ideas that don’t quite work out in practice. 5/10
Paul Simpson
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