Get the latest gossip
The Trouble With Trolls, in Russian Troll Farm
Sarah Gancher’s play takes us to the bunker where disinformation begins its journey.
Of course, we know what’s coming on the Election Night the trolls are working toward, so we’re hungry for something more, some separate but intertwined coalescence of moral arc and thematic force — something to render the finale newly revelatory and devastating, not simply the dull pang of a familiar trauma. That’s not all down to the performers themselves: There’s a sense that Gancher is most at home writing demonic flourishes for her maniacal, 4chan-scrolling natural-born troll, Steve (John Lavelle, fearlessly amped up to 11), or strange, robotic ripostes for the dead-eyed expert coder, Egor (an excellent Haskell King). Even Richard III would have to tip his crown to Steve’s frenzied, flagrant delight as he peers across the lurid green footlights to hit us with friendly little tidbits like “What if I told you multiculturalism is ethnomasochism?” and “Paste this in your Broadway sung-through rap musical: The Enlightenment was the worst event in human history!” and, crucially, “Am I even serious?
Or read this on VULTURE