Sometimes as a reviewer, I will write that I’m not going to go into detail on a production as it needs to be experienced. This is not me being lazy, but it is me trying to convey an idea that the show is not easy to define and would, in my belief, mean different things to different audiences. So it is with Pip Williams one-act play Guidelines, which is currently on at the New Diorama.
The cast – Rachel-Leah Hosker and Alex McCauley – play various roles during the show, but start as a walking, talking, interacting user agreement for some photographic-based app. It’s important to listen to this section – as indeed it is to read online terms and conditions, but we never do. As you listen, you hear all the good stuff about certain types of pictures not being permitted, but then slipped in as sub-clauses are the exceptions that allow those pics to be exposed to the scrolling public. Quite fascinating. As we move through the production, we move deeper into the dark forest, a wonderful analogy for the internet and the hours of doom scrolling people spend delving deeper into the app whose algorithms push us to see what it wants us to see, sometimes going off on a path we wouldn’t have reached by personal choice.
That’s it as far as the details go. Pip Williams’ writing is really intriguing, making use of words and phrases to surround and challenge the audience. Using techniques that are definitely not the norm, you sometimes laugh and sometimes feel uncomfortable, but are unable to turn away. I have to admit the final scene, which I’m not sure I fully understood, totally blew my mind.
Director James Nash and Designer Jida Akil keep the action simple with the two actors dressed similarly and, mostly just using microphones on an empty – save for a square of grass effect – stage. Adi Currie’s lighting and particularly Patch Middleton’s sound really add to the atmosphere and create a sense of where and when we are, if not necessarily why we are there.
Rachel-Leah Hosker and Alex McCauley are brilliant performers who really know their stuff when it comes to conveying complex ideas and characters to an audience. Thinking back, it’s difficult to think of the two highly synchronised and affable terms and conditions spokespeople being the same actors as those seen at the end dealing with something beyond their, and in fact my, comprehension.
Overall, it is difficult to sum up Guidelines. There is a lot going on during the one-hour runtime, and I personally got lost a couple of times. But, having said that, I really enjoyed the show and didn’t find my attention wavering throughout. The only thing I can really say is if this review has intrigued you, then get a ticket and go along with an open mind, ready to experience something fascinating.
Review by Terry Eastham
Guidelines is a live haunting that summons the internet as the deep dark woods of our cultural imagination – a primordial ritual conjuring the dark side of growing up online. This shapeshifting journey moves through cached nightmares, conjures spirits in the comments section, and reckons with all the things we were too young to see or understand when we first clicked “I agree”.
In the sterile glow of a Silicon Valley boardroom, two beguiling strangers meticulously outline the terms and conditions. In the beating heart of a search engine, a shadow whispers that everything will be okay as long as you keep your eyes fixed on the radiant screen. In a barren field lost in time, two teenage girls prise open a portal they’ll never be able to close.
Cast – Rachel-Leah Hosker and Alex McCauley
Writer – Pip Williams
Director – James Nash
Set and Costume Designer – Jida Akil
Sound Designer – Patch Middleton
Lighting Designer – Adi Currie
Movement Director – Ken Nakajima
Producer – Moya Matthews
Dramaturg – Louise Orwin
Facilitator – Alessandra Zavagno
Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.
GUIDELINES
New Diorama Theatre
3 to 14 February 2026
