Theater: “Russian Troll Farm” at Vineyard
AI and Chat GPT are changing our world. Can they also affect presidential elections? Sarah Gancher’s new black comedy, “Russian Troll Farm” (in previews at Vineyard) argues they have and still can.
The setting is St. Petersburg, Russia, 2016. Five co-workers in an Internet research agency have been assigned to manipulate social media to advance Russia’s agenda at home and abroad. Two of them, Nikolai (Hadi Tabbal) and Masha (Renata Friedman), are positively giddy when the narrative they’ve created connecting Hillary Clinton with a pedophile ring (i.e., the infamous “Pizzagate”) goes viral.
However, Ljuba (Christine Lahti), the iron maiden supervisor, is having none of these elaborate “distractions.” She wants her employees to pump out short, pithy lies, one after the other. “Our job is to convince the housewife in Indiana to vote for Trump,” she insists, as his electoral victory would be a triumph for their boss, Vladimir Putin.
Two other coworkers, Steve (John Lavelle) and Egor (Haskell King), a tech nerd, however, aren’t content to stick with hacking democratic elections. They want to come up with kompromat that will lead to the dismissal of their fellow co-workers, and their promotion to boss.
Lavelle, a big blubbery ball of manic energy, brilliantly channels John Belushi and Chris Farley in his role as Steve. At one point, he goes into a terrifying rant that reveals his reactionary nature. “The Enlightenment was the worst thing to happen to the Western World,” he screams. Ulp. Whatever you say.
In a cast of superb performers, however, nobody outshines Lahti. As Ljuba, she delivers an eery, yet strangely moving monologue how her damaged upbringing led her to became a true-blue KGB propagandist.
All of this sounds grim but it’s really not. In fact it’s horrifying funny.
Trigger warning: you will be reminded of a few key events of the 2016 presidential campaign (e.g, “Lock Her Up,” the James Comey bombshell, the New York Times “needle” abruptly moving red on Election Night). While those of a certain political persuasion might not wish to relive their horror, this should not detract you from the main message of “Russian Troll Farm”: the impact that phony information, posing as truth, can have on a presidential election. Nice to know it could never happen again. Right? Wrong!
Like this review? Follow me at “What Does Aug Think?” at acsntn.substack.com. Thank you!
Trigger warning: you will be reminded of a few key events of the 2016 presidential campaign (e.g, “Lock Her Up,” the James Comey bombshell, the New York Times “needle” abruptly moving red on Election Night). While those of a certain political persuasion might not wish to relive their horror, this should not detract you from the main message of “Russian Troll Farm”: the impact that phony information, posing as truth, can have on a presidential election. Nice to know it could never happen again. Right? Ahem.
Like this review? Follow me at “What Does Aug Think?” at acsntn.substack.com. Thank you!