Super Connected, a new film, album and theatre show about teenage screen addiction and how parents and teenagers navigate their relationships with each other in the new reality of digital distraction and digital dependency is coming to Bath’s Chapel Arts Centre on 29 May.
Written and performed by singer-songwriter and film maker Tim Arnold, and featuring a video appearance by Stephen Fry, Super Connected is described as a Black Mirror fusion of film, live music, and theatre about the existential ticking time bomb of social media and big tech.
At each show, Arnold will perform the Super Connected album live to its accompanying feature film in which he stars. The film’s collaborators include the creatives behind Oscar-winning Gravity and Monty Python’s Holy Grail.
Super Connected live show is a digital-age take on the original silent movie format of film with live music, with Arnold performing on stage and on screen at once. Full of dark wit, wisdom, passion and terror, the show chronicles one family’s encounter with addictions to technology.
Super Connected was inspired by psychiatrist Ricardo Cavrioli’s work in the mental health field, assessing teenagers suffering with screen addiction. Playfully addressing our dependency on tech screens, the audience members at each show are invited to take part in a PhoneFreeze ritual by placing their phones into a lockable pouch to experience the freedom (or discomfort) of being completely free from the digital tug of constant connectivity.
After each show there is an optional ‘Screenless Social’, where the audience can meet the creative team.
“We’d love to appeal to whole families coming to the show, particularly as a conversation ignition for parents and their teenage sons and daughters,” said producer Martin Hotloyd.
“We also host a ‘social’ after the show for the cast and creatives to meet the audience and everyone can chat about what they thought of the experience.
“We launched the show at the Roundhouse in London last year and it was both breathtaking and inspiring. With Parliament’s first debate about smartphones and social media’s impact on young people’s mental health happening yesterday, we think it’s really important to circulate the news of Tim’s show arriving in Bath for the first time. As David Bowie’s agent, John Giddings, said last week, “Rock ‘n’ Roll with a social message and a story for the whole family. Brilliant.”
Check out a trailer for the live show: https://superconnected.technology/superconnectedlive/
More trailers on the official website: https://superconnected.technology/
Book your tickets at https://www.bathfringe.co.uk/event/super_connected/