Edinburgh Fringe 2025
Low Down
Technically brilliant and emotionally absorbing, The Insider makes tax fraud compelling viewing. The Cum-Ex scandal tricked EU Governments out of an estimated €55 billion of tax income. The Insider is the story of a whistleblower at the heart of the tax evasion scheme who turns crown witness for the German Government.
Review
A huge financial scandal which is estimated to have cost EU taxpayers at least €55 billion, shocking as it may be, doesn’t seem like it would translate to scintillating viewing, but this is theatre of the highest calibre which succeeds in making the story utterly enthralling.
When we arrive a respectable looking besuited man is already on stage in a perspex box. We are instructed to put on headphones which transport us into what is going on in the character’s head. The story is transformed from a cold factual account of tax fraud on the financial pages of the newspaper to an immersive experience exploring the reasons which would entice someone to get drawn into the scheme in the first place, the human costs of doing so and the aftermath.
Christoffer Hvidberg Rønje puts in a stunning performance as the unnamed whistleblower, a young tax lawyer and father who gets embroiled in what initially seems like dubious financial dealings – ‘“just a scribble on a piece of paper” and quickly becomes part of something much larger than he bargained for. His interrogation by the German police, with text projections against the walls and the disembodied voice of the leading detective, Annie Brorhilker (Marion Reuter), form the mainstay of the play with flashbacks encompassing scenes with tax attorneys, new investors, with family, in a karaoke bar, nightclub and hospital, all playing out within the confines of the perspex box.
Rønje is the only character speaking live, synchronising perfectly with ‘ghost voices’ from Benjamin Kitter (Hanno Berger, tax attorney and criminal); Zoe Mills (nurse, the Virgin Mary, speaker); and William Halken (new investor) playing the other parts. He uses the clear walls to draw diagrams on which provide simple explanations of what is a complex scheme. Backdrops of cityscapes, trees, nightclubs projected onto two of the walls of the box add to our experience of immersion with the character as he descends into his own private hell. Rønje refers the famous Oracle of Delphi maxim “Know yourself” and it becomes increasingly clear that there are parts of himself that he does not know and cannot live with as his life unravels.
Tax fraud scan can seem like a cold and calculated crime without victims. Playwright, Anna Skov Jensen’s The Insider points out the very human costs both at both the individual and societal level. In countries, increasingly strapped to provide a social security net for their citizens, the Cum-ex scandal has pocketed €55 billion which could have been spent on those who need it in our society.
Johan Sarauw’s direction is absolutely pitch-perfect, sound, video projection and lighting coordinate perfectly with the actor in the box. In particular, the sound designers, Peter Albrectsen and Sun Tee Engelstoft deserve plaudits for their creation of an experience that draws us in and immerses us in the mind of The Insider.
The Insider is an incredible piece of theatre – technically innovative and carried out with absolute precision, powerfully acted and deftly directed. It’s an angry piece of theatre that shines a light on the hidden forces of financial hubris at work within our society.
