Dystopia 26 is a show that sets out to fuse political satire with rock opera and let’s face it with the current political climate there is certainly a lot of material for it. The show promises to be both immersive and multimedia which piqued my interest.
The show is set inside a country called Dystopia and we meet the prison band made up of Trump Chicken, Kim Jong Elvis, Polonium Putin, a spin Doctor named Beldon Haigh, a rebel named Helen Raiser along with the current President of Dystopia, President Blame. Presented primarily as a rock concert with some storytelling between the 16 numbers, as a result the storytelling and the music are forced to do much of the heavy lifting.
Whilst the premise of the show is one that sparks interest and there are clear parallels with Dystopia and today’s society, even when we put aside the obvious ones like the other members of the band, we hear about their trillionaires sending people to the moon, the accusations of outsiders eating peoples cats and dogs and other similar stories to those seen in our own news cycles over recent years. Despite this the parallels begin to wear thin when there is no real interesting or intelligent development of them. As we move into act 2 an election is called, along with allegations of voter fraud of course, but even these developments fail to explore anything really new, beyond reiterating towards the end that they are all as bad as each other. The production therefore rarely moves beyond recognising current headlines. Good political satire should expose uncomfortable truths or something the audience haven’t already considered; here the references often feel like little more than a checklist of recent news stories.
With familiar faces in the band , literally with 3 performers wearing lifelike rubber masks, and references to Nigel Farage the relationship between Trump, Putin and Kim Jong Un and Dystopia itself is hard to fathom, occasionally we are asked to shout things at Trump, like ‘Epstein files’ but it’s unclear how this fits into the bigger picture and the satire they are trying to present. Rather than interrogating political figures or institutions, the show simply references them.
Justin Skelton headed up the band as the lead vocalist and guitarist and whilst his voice was pleasant he didn’t have the stage presence needed to front a 2 hour show. Helen Raiser was played by Fiona Lynch and whilst her vocals were the strongest of the group they were often under-utilised. Dru Baker played President Blame as well as multiple instruments throughout the show and whilst his musicality was strong many of his comedic moments simply fell flat.
The shows sixteen rock numbers are the focus, from Soap Machine which focuses on social media through to the finale of Pure Distraction which talks about who the real enemy actually is! The music is all played live by the band and it is clear that they are talented musicians but less than 24 hours after the show many of these numbers have simply merged together and I would struggle to hum any of the repetitive tunes or recall any of the lyrics.
The whole show is accompanied by 2 video screens which flank the stage and provide visual accompaniment to the stories being told through the songs however it was appeared that a huge majority of the content was AI-generated and not in a subtle way. It became increasingly distracting as the show progressed and often did little to enhance the story or the concept. Despite this I found myself watching the AI animation for the majority of the time instead of the performances on stage which really detracted from the show itself. Initially I mulled over if the use of AI was a deliberate extension of the show’s satirical ambitions, perhaps commenting on our growing reliance on AI or the increasingly artificial nature of political discourse. However as the evening progressed, that reading became harder to sustain. Rather than deepening the satire they added noise rather than insight.
Dystopia 26 undoubtedly has ambition and the idea of combining political satire with a live rock concert is one with genuine potential however the execution never matches the promise. The satire rarely moves beyond the surface level references, the songs struggle to leave a lasting impression and the AI generated visuals distract from the performance. At a time when politics provides endless material for sharp insightful commentary, this feels like a missed opportunity.
Dystopia 26 is playing in Edinburgh at the Fringe Festival from the 7th – 31st August. You can find out more and book tickets here.
If you like this review you might also like my review of Jesus Christ Superstar, Beetlejuice and Hadestown.