Review: Going Viral

It's a Hollywood staple '“ an outbreak of a virus, a group of scientists and a mission to contain it before '˜this thing goes epidemic'.

It’s a Hollywood staple – an outbreak of a virus, a group of scientists and a mission to contain it before ‘this thing goes epidemic’.

It’s the starting point for truly appalling disaster movies starring monkeys and Dustin Hoffman and for zombie apocalypse stories - and now it’s a starting point for one-man performer Daniel Bye.

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That Bye has worked with Third Angel’s Alexander Kelly is clear – the conversational, easy-going style is now a real staple of Yorkshire theatre companies and Kelly is a master of the form. Going Viral is a story about a virus that begins on an airplane, with a passenger who appears to be the carrier – Patient Zero, if you will – of a disease that sets people inexplicably weeping and leaves them unable to stop.

Wrapped up in the tale is a sci-fi adventure, a rumination on the interconnectedness between human beings and the instinct of self-preservation. Ultimately, the strands could be more satisfyingly completed, the story of the scientist who chases Patient Zero is left dangling tantalizingly and there is a political point being made here by Bye about the value of life in the West when weighed up against the lives of, well, brown folk. This is a strand that would do well with being mined a little further. The reason Bye doesn’t appear to bring everything together in a neat bow is that he wants the audience to do some of the work, which is admirable. There is also a counter argument that leading us by the hand a little more would create something ultimately more satisfying. This show, in the hands of such a comfortable storyteller, is diverting, entertaining and might well leave you itching for more.

Touring, various venues. West Yorkshire Playhouse. Nick Ahad

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