666 Comments

Two performers. 57 characters. 666 comments.

In October 2010 cartoonist Gabby Shultz posted a comic strip on his website. It was about online sexism. What could possibly go wrong? Over the next three days the comic went viral and the comments went bananas. Some of them were witty, some of them were outrageous, some of them were just plain bizarre. 666 Comments is an attempt to stage that comment thread.

Hilarious, provocative and occasionally plain terrifying, 666 Comments brings the virtual world into astonishingly vivid reality.

The show demonstrates the absolute truth of everything the comic said about the prevalence and extremity of online sexism. The comments thread is a startling and disconcerting document, the swagger, posturing and drama of which lends itself incredibly well to performance.

It is also unexpectedly hilarious. While it is as shocking, thought-provoking and challenging as you might imagine, some of the things people say online are so bizarre they beggar belief, and so the extent to which the show is an absolute riot is hard to see coming.

In some ways it’s difficult to spend an evening in the company of such awful people - but the overall effect is ultimately incredibly affirming and joyous.