I Wish I Was Lonely, Battersea Arts Centre

Ever think you might be too attached to your phone? Hannah Jane Walker and Chris Thorpe’s new interactive show asks audience members just that, taking a long, hard look at the proliferation of digital technology and what it means for the way we communicate.

Walker and Thorpe’s starting point is to reverse one of the key rules of theatregoing etiquette and ask all audience members to keep their phones on throughout the show. Anyone who receives a call is encouraged to answer it and continue their conversation regardless of the performance, while many of the interactive elements of the show ask theatregoers to communicate via their phones. I Wish I Was Lonely is perhaps not for those who shy away from audience involvement, but if you don’t mind getting stuck in then it promises humour, surprises and perhaps even some genuine connection with your fellow theatregoers.

Walker and Thorpe’s different backgrounds, in poetry and theatre respectively, are reflected in their work. I Wish I Was Lonely follows the success of their previous show, The Oh Fuck Moment, which hilariously and thoughtfully explored those moments in life when everything seems to go wrong, using a similar mixture of poetry, storytelling and audience interaction. While performing their new show at the Edinburgh Fringe, Thorpe had an "oh fuck moment" of his own, when a mix-up of phones made one segment of the performance a little more shocking than intended.

As developing technology ensures that we are ever more connected, and with Google Glass now on its way, I Wish I Was Lonely could not be more timely. After seeing and loving this show in Edinburgh, we can’t wait to see what London’s smartphone-brandishing audiences make of it.