Wednesday 19th and Thursday 20th May 2010 @ Bristol Old Vic, Bristol
Showing as part of Mayfest 2010, Bristol’s festival of contemporary theatre

Will Adamsdale has never had a happy time with computers. Ever since they were introduced to the year below him in school for the first time, he has been running in fear and incomprehension. He describes it as like being chased by a tidal wave for 20 years; a wave of information and technology that’s constantly gathering pace and power until it finally swept him up and spat him out, a confused and disorientated mess. Adamsdale’s struggle to get his head around things that have become rudimentary to everyone else is the basis of his new show, The Human Computer. He’s begrudgingly realised he has to conform – “it’s not social acceptable these days not to be able to ping across an email” – but things have advanced so far and are so fast he doesn’t know where to begin.

As he asks the audience for some help and answers, his curiosity and naïve questions are almost childlike in their innocent incisiveness. He manages to highlight frustrations we can all relate to with computers and it’s hilarious to watch a man walking the same incomprehensible path we all once walked. We’ve all learnt to ignore or deal with in our own personal ways things like spam, help buttons, virus protection software, the “pagan symbols” that gather in the bottom right of the screen, and the uncomfortable way computers colloquially use the word OK, but this is all new to Adamsdale and the insanity of it all is driving him around the bend.

The performance style is refreshingly open and honest, forever flirting the boundary between stand-up and theatre. Adamsdale uses an impressive array of cardboard props and scenery to illustrate his points and, with a few helping hands from unsuspecting members of the audience, the overall effect is unquestionably funny – there were people going red in the face and buckled over from laughing so hard – and very endearing.

www.mayfestbristol.co.uk

Matthew Whittle www.matthewwhittleblog.blogspot.com