Description
Shock Therapy Productions‘ was inspired by a number of true events and broader societal changes facing Gold Coasters and the wider community. The show has been developed through a series of community consultation workshops aimed at gathering true accounts of acts of discrimination against a variety of marginalised groups.
SYNOPSIS
You are sitting on the bus on the way home from a hard days work, quietly minding your own business when an argument breaks out. You overhear that the disagreement is racially motivated. The argument heats up and the threat of violence increases. A young girl takes out a mobile phone and starts to film the event. What do you do? Do you continue to sit quietly? Do you speak up and risk becoming the victim of a violent attack? When you get home that evening you get online to realise the footage from the event has gone Viral.
Viral is a new work written and devised by Shock Therapy Productions. It explores the role of social media and technology and how it impacts the way we record, communicate and think about events of racism, abuse, violence and sexual assault in the community.
It explores the line between disassociation and raising awareness about such events, asking the question “is it better to record these activities and post it on the Internet or step in and stop it from occurring in the first place”?
PRODUCTION HISTORY
The Secondary Schools touring production of Viral was first performed by Shock Therapy Productions on 18th July, 2016 at Good Shepherd Lutheran College in Noosaville, Queensland.
The mainstage production of Viral was first performed on the 1st of September, 2016 by Shock Therapy Productions at The Art Centre Gold Coast in The Space.
ISBN: 978 1 925338 59 1
