Edinburgh Fringe 2025
Low Down
Dystopia : The Rock Opera – seventy-five minutes of full on, hard core, in your face, brutally sharp satire with a blistering soundscape and a generous serving of “over the top” theatricality.
Review
To the positively cavernous Grand Hall at Braw Venues @ Grand Lodge for some Saturday night rocking to Dystopia : The Rock Opera, billed as a production that drags the audience into a world where truth is distorted, power is unchecked and freedom is a carefully controlled illusion.
Hang on a minute? That’s where we are now isn’t it? Post-Covid, many previously unrestricted activities remain, well, restricted. And truth has surely never been more distorted – just check out a certain unchecked, delusional narcissist’s Truth Social forum. Which is anything but……allegedly.
Music has long been a medium for poking fun and holding the Establishment to account. Remember Gilbert and Sullivan? Look at Gilbert’s lyrics and you will see subtly barbed attacks on the UK government and institutions of the 19th century.
Subtlety, however, is not an adjective that applies to Dystopia : The Rock Opera. This is seventy-five minutes of full on, hard core, in your face, brutally sharp satire with what can only be described as a blistering soundscape and a generous serving of “over the top” theatricality.
Dystopia is a nation on the brink, ruled by President Blame who thrives on division, distraction and deception. His Make Dystopia Great Again campaign and his new Dystopian Projection World Map reshape what most of us would recognise as reality to fit his personal world vision. And his devilishly cunning Soap Machine Dopamine Bubbles keeps his people dazed, scrolling and sedated. See, I told you subtlety was in short supply in this one.
But, as corruption, failure and unfettered greed pushes Blame’s nation to breaking point, a new political force emerges, basically promising the people whatever they want. Promises so far-fetched, so illusionary, so impossible to fulfil that they might, just might, actually work. Sounds familiar? Like an party election manifesto for example? I’ll leave you to guess the conclusion.
But, half way through, I was wondering where this was all heading. Seventy-five minutes seemed a lot to fill with what is essentially a single premise – that the world’s going to hell in a handbasket. Yet, whilst the lyrics could be accused of deploying a very large sledgehammer, they resolutely and continuously draw our attention to the rapidly expanding populist nut, one where the rise of a small coterie of unchecked tyrants is, arguably, threatening current world stability and order, whilst us proles twiddle our thumbs and wonder whether we should be doing something. Anything.
This is a show that just kind of grows on you. It draws you in, inexorably. You get the premise, recognise that we’re in danger of sleepwalking into a situation we’re not going to enjoy. And that there’s a way to avoid this.
The quality of the music helps. The six piece band are each very talented singers/musicians, led by Justin Skelton as lead vocalist and guitarist. He also wrote the music and lyrics, so he’s clearly got a lot of skin in this game. Supporting Skelton was Fiona Lynch (or Emily Copas) on vocals. (Whoever it was on the Saturday I saw the show has a strident yet mellifluous voice, great range, great pitch, great sound which deserves more exposure.)
The idea of kitting three members of the band out as Trump (bass), Putin (percussion) and Kim Yong Un (er, Elvis, also guitar) adds a really creepy look/feel to proceedings, given that each of the said trio sports full, skin tight, horribly realistic facials of the character they represent. Completing the line up is the charismatic Dru Baker (keyboards, flute, sax and clarinet) doubling up as President Blame and new party, new boy Magnanimous Moon.
It’s a uniformly strong cast that can all really sing/play. They filled the room with a rich, rock sound that bounced off the walls and had many of us tapping away to the varied rhythms as the songs (and plot) rolled along.
And whoever had the idea for and/or designed the dual screened multi-media presentation that ran across the whole show deserves their own personal “5 star” award. Not only did each slide show all the song lyrics but the slide backgrounds were a veritable smorgasbord of cartoons, caricatures and stylized portraits of the band themselves in all their glory. Most rock songs are three or four chord affairs so I found myself increasingly scanning the lyrics and singing along. And I was by far from the only one.
The lyrics themselves also deserve a bit of a mention given that there was so much that was, to coin a phrase, “on the money”. “Bank that scams you into debt”; “trapped in the vortex of a market crash”; “computer tracking me”; all I hear is blah, blah, blah”; “addicted to blame, addicted to shame” and “the fight you’ve always had is with yourself” are just a few of the many that I scribbled down. Thought provoking. Redolent of 21st century life. And worryingly apposite.
There’s a lot to admire in this show which comes recommended, particularly for those who like their satire strong and enjoy a good tune. Strong singers, great musicians, lyrics that have still got me thinking long after the last note died away and thoroughly professional staging and delivery throughout. Subtle it ain’t, but it sure gets the message across.
