Producer and Playwright

THE DARKNESS OR ELSE THE LIGHT was a new full-length play commissioned by Strange Town, written especially for their 14-18 youth theatre group, in response to the theme "Fear of the Unknown".

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An anonymous hack – an act of sabotage or revenge – kicks off a chain of events that changes the whole of society.

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Suddenly a group of young people must learn how to survive in a world where the private has become public, everyone’s data is out there for all to see, and a person’s every action can apparently be predicted. As the temptation grows to spy on their peers, they must confront the question: do we ever really know each other?

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Informed by discussions with the group and inspired by their interests and preoccupations, I wrote a play that was a sort of thought experiment, starting with the erosion of privacy for young people in the here and now thanks to social media, and then spiralling into a dystopian near-future vision of a world where personality testing data leads everyone to believe that the fundamental truth of each individual is now available for all to see.

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THE DARKNESS OR ELSE THE LIGHT was produced on the main stage at the Traverse Theatre in June 2018.

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Review quotes:

 

“thought-provoking... a socially-relevant drama … smartly addresses issues such as cyber-bullying and slut-shaming“

– The Wee Review

 

“subtle, well-crafted .. a genius concept of the social pressures facing the so-called ‘snowflake’ generation ... Salisbury’s writing offers an exceptionally important message regarding our own self-value against social media pressure to share“

– Reviews Hub

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Production photos (credit Andy Catlin):

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