Ljuba (Christine Lahti, left), the supervisor of room 313K at the Internet Research Agency (a.k.a. the troll farm), shares a drink and a laugh with an employee, former journalist Masha (Renata Friedman), in Sarah Gancher’s Russian Troll Farm.
Sarah Gancher’s Russian Troll Farm at the Vineyard Theatre is a nightmare version of an office sitcom, set during the run-up to the 2016 U.S. election. Quirky worker bees perform evil tasks while navigating interpersonal relationships and an ever-present authoritarian state looming over them, in the form of Vladimir Putin’s portrait on the wall and an armed soldier keeping watch. The professional Internet trolls in St. Petersburg, at the benignly named Internet Research Agency, send out vast numbers of tweets and posts using fake accounts—a “mix of celebrities, eggs, fake individuals, and pundits”—to disseminate misinformation. In almost every case, Gancher uses real Russian troll tweets, a documentary reality that makes the set-up even more nightmarish.
Steve (John Lavelle, right) looks on as Egor (Haskell King) composes social-media disinformation.
The audience knows too well, of course, how the story ends: these trolls help elect a monster to the presidency; but who, Gancher wonders, are the people behind the digital personas? And how can someone who isn’t a true believer find meaning, or a rationale, in such work? The play is divided into titled sections, which focus on each character in turn; the tone and style vary, from realistic scenes to impressionistic ones to highly theatrical monologues. Under Darko Tresnjak’s direction, the action unfolds on Alexander Dodge’s clean, white-box stage, with four desks facing the audience, each with a laptop computer. Excellent lighting (Marcus Doshi) and video and projection design (Jared Mezzocchi) bring the torrent of social-media posts to vivid life for the audience; they create an overwhelming sense of inundation that the trolls specialize in.
Masha (Renata Friedman), a former journalist, is a new hire trained by Nikolai (Hadi Tabbal), a would-be screenwriter who married an oligarch’s daughter. Nikolai finds his way into the work via a screenwriting book: “In terms of mankind’s hierarchy of needs, stories are right between sleep and sex. And if you tell a good enough story, you can change the world,” Nikolai says with dreamy idealism. And yet the online story that Nikolai and Masha create is about migrant children in tunnels underneath Disney World and Hillary Clinton’s nefarious involvement. Masha and Nikolai know this is repellent nonsense, but it’s a job well done, and they are thrilled by the creative burst that coincides with their burgeoning romantic interest.
“Overall, Gancher’s writing is sharp and the performances strong.”
Steve (John Lavelle) is the true believer in the group: he spouts endlessly about “traditionalism” (i.e., “neo-fascism”) and the horrors of the Enlightenment, liberal democracy, and feminism. Egor (Haskell King) is a robot-like worker uninterested in non-electronic human connection or ideological grudges; in one of the play’s cruel ironies, he begins to identify with the Black American struggle against oppression at the same time that he seeks to dampen Black participation in the election. This kind of identification does not please the boss, Ljuba (Christine Lahti), a forbidding former KGB official who brings in mandates for the trolls: “I need tweets aimed at divorced white mothers with health problems, ages 55 to 74 in Kenosha, Wisconsin.”
Masha and Nikolai (Hadi Tabbal) watch as their online conspiracy theory gains traction. Photographs by Carol Rosegg.
The play is best in these detailed moments where the process behind the trolling is revealed alongside the characters’ personal motivations, and when the employees are actually creating the sick narratives and driving their engagement in symphony-like bursts of (literally) bouncing energy. Overall, Gancher’s writing is sharp and the performances strong, though some of the character developments and relationships in the last quarter of the play feel forced and schematic. The play’s subtitle is A Workplace Comedy, and while it does generate some uncomfortable laughter, it is almost too aggravating to be funny: not only is it unpleasant to rewatch the 2016 election, but viewers are presumably well aware that this misinformation campaign is likely to be repeated this year.
The audience does not just witness trolling but are themselves trolled. In direct address to the audience, Steve plays with the idea that his horrendous homophobia and anti-Semitism and general 4chan vileness is all performative; but whatever the truth, he is there to troll the liberal theatergoer—“I’m not really racist, I faked it all. Like the Holocaust! (Wink.)”—and offer an unfiltered look at the rancid views that undergird Trumpism. Lavelle commits fully and plays Steve as a winking, clownish, yet sinister villain, channeling Richard III, though he is pathetic and weak behind his alpha-male rhetoric. Steve’s comments generate the impulse to “feed the troll,” exactly the kind of engagement that he and his colleagues live for; hopefully, instead, his harangues can lead a spectator toward renewed defiance and determination to fight against the past becoming prologue.
Russian Troll Farm runs through March 3 at the Vineyard (108 E 15th St.). Evening performances are at 7 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and at 7:30 p.m. Saturday; matinees are at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are available by visiting vineyardtheatre.org.
Playwright: Sarah Gancher
Director: Darko Tresnjak
Sets: Alexander Dodge
Costumes: Linda Cho
Lighting: Marcus Doshi
Sound Design: Darron L West and Beth Lake
Video & Projection Design: Jared Mezzocchi
