Edinburgh Fringe 2024
Ariana vs Chomsky
PJV Studio
Genre: Theatre
Venue: The Space @ Surgeon’s Hall
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Mark and Chloe have been together several years when they make the move to Manchester. Their common philosophy is challenged after the 2017 terrorist attack at an Ariana Grande concert when Chloe is moved to question the UK’s part in the tragedy, but Mark feels done with activism. An intriguing premise is underserved by its time constraints and thinly realized characters.
Review
Ariana vs. Chomsky brings us into the world of Mark and Chloe, an established couple who decide to move north, where they can get a house and raise a family. They met when they were reading the same book, Optimism Over Despair by Noam Chomsky, and have taken for granted that their values align and will continue to as they grow together. Chloe is a math teacher, smiley and accommodating to Mark, who we are told early on is the type of guy who doesn’t have time to see his parents, but plenty to go to a Stone Roses concert. The moral compass set, they are now thrown into crisis in the aftermath of the 2017 Manchester Arena where twenty-two people were killed at an Ariana Grande concert by terrorists. Mark wants to go to the tribute concert to see if Oasis will get back together, but also to show solidarity, of course. Chloe has read an article in the paper that has made her question what is twenty-two people to the hundreds of thousands killed as a result of the conflicts in the Middle East carried out by the UK and USA. The couple’s issues are punctuated by actual quotes by Noam Chomsky, the linguist and philosopher best known for his work on manufactured consent, the idea that the media consciously curates material that limits how you view the world.
On paper, this is an intriguing idea that forty minutes feel far too short to truly explore. In execution, however, there is never a moment the audience is not being told exactly what to feel and how to feel it, perhaps a result of this time constraint. Mark is clearly in the wrong, his friends strawmen who call women they don’t agree with cunts and cheat on their wives. He argues through logical fallacies, though Chloe’s case is only argued back through quotes and references rather than her own extrapolations of what she has learned and experienced. The moments where Chomsky himself (played by Chloe’s actress Laura Luce) is in conversation are more intriguing, but are only rehashes of things Chomsky has already said, this time bafflingly in an English accent. These moments, too, lose their power with the overly patronizing interviewer (played by PJ Vickers, who also plays Mark and co-wrote the piece with Clare Gilman), there to remind us who is good and who is bad.
This play works best as an introduction to Chomsky’s work and ideas, and will hopefully start up some conversations about who decides what is true and what they might be getting out of it. Gilman in particular is a comforting presence, and a bit more room for her to explore the character would not go amiss. With more time to move within the space, really get into the ideas, and grow Chloe and Mark and the reasons they do what they do, this could be more than an intriguing idea and a really interesting play.
Ariana vs. Chomsky is at The Space @ Surgeon’s Hall at 2:10 pm through 17 August.
