Set in London in 2016, on the precipice of Brexit and the American presidential election, Karya\u2019s world is rapidly changing. And yet, to a 17-year-old, everything seems to be changing. Her best friend Libby (Alyssa May Gold) is getting hot and heavy with a new boyfriend, she\u2019s learning how to swim at a local club… and her Turkish mother Ceyda (Roxanna Hope Radja) has just reopened the cold case on Karya\u2019s missing brother, whom Ceyda claims she recognized in an ISIS video online.<\/p>\n
Needless to say, the dramatic bleeds into the comedic in Acker\u2019s artful script as Karya and Libby navigate high school and boys as well as the dark underbelly of Twitter, where ISIS members lurk \u2014 one of whom may well be Karya\u2019s brother. Ranz-Lind puts on a master class in facial expressions alone, capturing the body horror of being a teenager as well as the emotional horror of a complicated relationship with an overbearing mother who tends to embarrass you in public. She also captures the teenage dichotomy of extreme anxiety and unearned overconfidence so well that it\u2019s almost visceral.<\/p>\n
Gold is Karya\u2019s perfect foil, full of false confidence and teen arrogance, while Sara Haider, as Karya\u2019s brother\u2019s estranged girlfriend Isha, exudes true cool-girl energy at all times. Despite her demeanor, Isha represents trials that Karya doesn\u2019t have to face \u2014 anti-Muslim prejudice (which Ceyda herself exhibits), being thrown out of her home by her own parents, and even domestic violence.<\/p>\n
Radja is relentlessly funny as Karya\u2019s elegant mother, sliding into a well-defined and immediately lovable (if not complex) character from her first line. Her grief is just as compelling as her comedy as we see just how obsessive she has been since her son\u2019s disappearance, scanning pixelated ISIS videos for evidence he\u2019s still living. Rounding out the ensemble is a stoic Kario Marcel as Jon, the hapless swimming instructor who offers some sage advice when least expected and gets a lot more than he bargained for with Karya and Ceyda. Fish may be a teen buddy comedy on some levels, but it\u2019s also a nuanced depiction of a mother-daughter relationship \u2014 broken by grief but enduring and, by the end, perhaps even healing.<\/p>\n
Under the direction of Tatiana Pandiani, Fish is sharp, funny, and intensely vulnerable. Despite their many flaws, you can\u2019t help but fall in love with these characters, even as they make extraordinarily questionable decisions and embroil themselves with the biggest boogeymen of the mid-2010s. In this story that is so relatable and yet such a time capsule of a moment we can\u2019t return to, Acker\u2019s play at once captures hearts and invites you to jump into the deep end of a scary Internet world.<\/p>\n
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Fish summary<\/p>\n
When British teenager Karya begins to suspect her missing brother may have been radicalized by ISIS, she and her best friend Libby devise a plan: Slide into the Twitter DMs of ISIS members for information. When Karya gets the man she\u2019s been catfishing to send her money for a fictitious journey to Serbia, the girls realize just how much power is at their fingertips. But as Karya bites off more than she can chew, the results could spell disaster.<\/p>\n
Fish is making its world premiere as a co-production of WP Theater and Signature Theatre.<\/p>\n
What to expect at Fish<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t feel like 2016 was really that long ago. And yet, Acker\u2019s script captures just how much our culture has shifted since then. Fish is set before Brexit and the results of the 2016 presidential election, and we as an audience can feel the anticipation of the national and global changes these two events alone have ushered in. For characters who are ethnically Turkish in a country on the precipice of a decision motivated, in no small part, by white nationalism, we know that their future is about to get a little more dangerous, to say the least.<\/p>\n
Fish covers a range of uncomfortable topics, and you can feel the tension in the room sharpen as Karya gets deeper into her catfishing experiment. In 2016, Twitter was just being harnessed as a necessary political tool, not just at a local level but a national one. Seeing the Twitter logo and hearing the signature tweet noise can be a little nostalgic, but the danger Karya finds there \u2014 and G Clausen\u2019s sound design, which emphasizes the claustrophobia of the app \u2014 reminds us it has never really been a safe space, even before the era of AI deepfakes and bots.<\/p>\n
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What audiences are saying about Fish<\/p>\n
Audience members praising Fish highlight the performances of Yasmin Ranz-Lind and Roxanna Hope Radja as daughter Karya and mother Ceyda, respectively.<\/p>\n
\u201cIntriguing, dark & often daring […] Fine ensemble esp the mother \/ daughter leads.\u201d – Show-Score user Richard 129440
\n\u201cSee this show if you like themes of grief and complicated family life […] the acting was good, especially Roxanna Hope Radja, who really stood out to me.\u201d -Show-Score user Rose 6307<\/p>\n