Edinburgh Fringe 2025
Low Down
Finlay McGowan, a young consultant, wakes up tied to a chair. His captors, two civil servants, explain to him that a government computer system has decided that, in order for the economy to grow, Finlay must kill himself. Unable to coerce him, they must persuade him to take his own life. Pique Theatre presents an interesting and unusual exploration of contemporary political anxieties.
Review
In this age of artificial intelligence, assisted dying and state failure, Gross Domestic Product raises some important questions. Whether it answers them is a different question. A young consultant, Finlay, is abducted by a small department within the British civil service. A government computer system, UGEN, has instructed two bureaucrats, Aisling and Rodney, to detain Finlay in their office so they can deliver to him an absurd proposal: the system predicts that UK GDP will increase by five per cent, but only if Finlay commits suicide. A tale of sinister bureaucracy and existential dizziness, it’s a show which could be described, to employ an overused phrase, as Kafkaesque.
It is a sign that the British state is so wrecked that it cannot execute even a kidnapping properly. Finley’s captors are extremely awkward and apologetic and yet don’t seem to allow themselves to question the orders they have carried out, or the fact that they have been made by a computer. When Rodney expresses some personal ethical concerns, Aisling replies that “the only “us” is the country we love”. It questions further the value of the individual as opposed to the collective when Rodney and Aisling try to persuade Finlay to sacrifice himself for the sake of the NHS. I wish that the script, which was at times bold and interesting, had developed these themes further.
The acting was often rather flat and perhaps suffered from a lack of direction and some weaknesses in the script, nor were there very many laughs in this black comedy. The stage, featuring some scattered office furniture, was too small for such a gory and chaotic show, with the result that several well-dressed members of the front row were unhappily splattered with fake blood. The computer’s references to “the retarded” and its use of a caricatured Indian accent at the conclusion of the play were a little queasy to listen to. But overall, the show had a very strong concept and some interesting lines of enquiry. With a bit more direction and some development of its main points, it could have been very good indeed and, even in its current state, it deserves attention.
