What a zinging evening at Chichester. Christopher Shinn’s new play The Narcissist, set in 2017, centres on a former American presidential adviser who announces that in a digitally transfixed, utterly individualistic age, voters engage with politics as they do with dating apps: they use them as distractions, beginning with arousal and ending in disappointment. His own marriage is on the rocks; he is hesitantly bisexual, bereft – and vulnerable.
Originally planned for 2020, Josh Seymour’s production swoops adroitly from shrewd argument to intimate dialogue and jittery sputter: two characters are addicted to opiates and everyone is fighting addiction to their screens. Jasmine Swan’s design glimmers with the drama’s possibilities: quietly opulent, with reflective walls and floor (so good for seeing yourself everywhere). Characters are first seen aloft in separate booths, outlined in neon, made for declamation and isolation.
