r/Conspiracy - Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2025

r/Conspiracy takes the chaotic sprawl of internet forums and channels it into something theatrical, intimate, and unnervingly funny.

At the centre is Alex (Ella Hällgren), who stumbles down the rabbit hole after spotting a Reddit thread about a machete-wielding stranger in her local park. What follows is a gradual descent into digital obsession, performed with wide-eyed intensity by Hällgren. Her slouched posture, oversized T-shirt, and baggy trousers signal a character more at home behind a glowing screen than the real world. 

Hällgren captures the restless, jittery energy of someone fuelled by energy drinks and adrenaline, unable to pull away from the siren call of the next post, the next DM, the next theory. It’s a performance that is both grounded in humour and edged with unease. 

Emma Ruse’s direction deftly shapes this digital world into something tangible on stage. The set design is particularly striking: digital-like trees with wires for leaves surround Alex, evoking both the tangle of the online world and a forest in which she is hopelessly wandering. It’s a clever visual metaphor for her state of mind that is caught between the safety of her desk and the vast, disorienting wilderness of conspiracy theories.

Sound design plays a crucial role: a pulsing, understated beat hums in the background, evoking the ceaseless heartbeat of the internet, while the voices of usernames, threads, and DMs are delivered in a teasingly seductive tone, reminding us of the strange intimacy between user and screen.
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What emerges is more than a satire of Reddit culture; it’s an exploration of escapism, loneliness, and the way online spaces can both consume and connect us. Ruse directs with a sharp awareness of rhythm and tension, giving space for comedy while letting the darker undertones creep in. The play never mocks its protagonist, instead treating her fascination with conspiracies as a mirror to the hunger we all feel—for answers, for belonging, for stories bigger than ourselves.

Lee Hutchison

4/5

This performance was watched on the final day of the run​