Search

Toggle dark mode:

Saved articles

You have not yet added any article to your bookmarks!

Browse articles

GDPR Compliance

We use cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. By continuing to use our site, you accept our use of cookies, Privacy Policy, and Terms of Service.

​Algorithms, influencers, online performance and the manosphere at the EdFringe

Richard Beck Richard Beck
16 Jul 2026

From algorithms and influencers to online performance and the manosphere, here are 5 Fringe shows which explore how the internet shapes identity, gender and power.

Shows which explore how the internet shapes identity, gender and power.

Gameplay 

Gameplay is an ‘audio-described myth for the end of times’ which promises innovative sound design, collapsing timelines and maybe, just maybe, Daily Mail critic Quentin Letts. 

Hurtling through history, the show leaps from ancient mythology through contemporary media anxiety before arriving at potential speculative futures.

This is the latest formally daring work from acclaimed theatre-maker Sam Rees and internationally renowned sound artist AJ Turner, whose previous work includes FAMEHUNGRY, This Is How We Die and collaborations with NYX. 

Visceral and unpredictable, Gameplay pushes the limits of what is possible at the cutting edge of technology and performance.

Already Here

If a computer can make you truly feel loved, does it matter if it isn’t real? As AI becomes increasingly embedded in our emotional lives, Already Here grapples with the questions that many of us have  

Susan is a middle-aged mother and writer struggling to find comfort and companionship while grieving the death of her husband. She turns to Teo,  an AI companion programmed to offer unconditional love, infinite patience and emotional understanding. Though it begins as a harmless escape, their relationship quickly evolves into something much more intimate  and far more unsettling. Susan must decide: is this a widow's delusion or love's evolution and does it even matter?

The show was created using over 3,000 pages of real conversations between writer and performer SJ Hodges and her own AI companion, Matteo. Hodges, using her own deeply personal experiences of grief, sets out to blur the boundaries between artist and machine and fiction and reality. 

 Already Here  is an intimate and extraordinarily relevant play that confronts one of the defining question of the technological age: in the context of increasing isolation and artificial intimacy, what does it really mean to connect?

Roleplay

Roleplay is a ferocious one-woman comedy that gradually morphs into a psychological thriller that follows a struggling feminist podcaster who reinvents herself as a provocative ‘slutfluencer’ in pursuit of visibility and financial security. As the lines between performance and reality begin to blur, the identity she has carefully constructed online threatens to consume her offline self.

Written by Hannah Reilly and produced by the award-winning team behind Baby Reindeer, Fleabag and Moulin Rouge! The Musical, the play offers a sharp and timely interrogation of contemporary digital culture. Through an exploration of influencer culture and personal branding, Roleplay examines how intimacy, authenticity and even political identity have become increasingly commodified online. The show asks what it means to package the self as content, exposing the tensions between agency and exploitation, empowerment and capitalism and performance and truth. Hilarious, unsettling and darkly incisive, Roleplay captures a generation of women navigating sexuality and consent in an era where visibility has become both currency and performance.

Sad Bride

Sad Bride sits at the intersection of feminism and technology: a dark comedy about queerness, trolls, and performing womanhood online. Charlotte Meriam’s new show follows Bride Thompson and her obsession with what makes the ‘perfect bride’, gleaned from meticulous research (read: hours of scrolling). Bride has found her happily-ever-after. She’s about to marry the man of her dreams and everything else will simply fall into place, just like she always knew it would. So why can’t she leave her weirdness behind? What exactly is she doing with three anonymous Instagram accounts? What happens when you meet the 'one' but are still an online troll under a bridge? Sadbride is a deeply personal exploration of queer identity, online performance, and what it means to live happily ever after in the age of technology.

Slayers

Slayers is a bold new one-woman play from RUPTURE Theatre that explores the impact of online misogyny and digital culture on contemporary life. The story follows Liane, a single mother and survivor of abuse, whose determination to protect her daughter intensifies after encounters with the toxic rhetoric of the manosphere. As mother and daughter take matters into their own hands, events spiral beyond their control. Combining personal trauma with wider social concerns, Slayers examines how online communities can influence real-world behaviour, offering a timely reflection on the consequences of digital radicalisation. 


Richard Beck

Richard Beck

A graduate in theology and education, Richard acted and contributed to dance, drama and music productions throughout his teaching career. He joined Broadway Baby in 2014 and is now our Editor-in-Chief. He usually disappears to warmer climes for the winter to pursue his passion for travel.

Related to this article:

Les Miserables
The Producers
The Play That Goes Wrong
Popular now
Lion King
Titanique
Matilda