Review: It Would be Such a Shame if You Missed Out, Traverse Theatre

I have never seen anything quite like this amazing show, and I doubt I ever will again. It Would be Such a Shame if You Missed Out is an audacious and absurdly anarchic event which explores fear of missing out (FOMO) as a trio of actors have their evening completely disrupted by a great big box of socialising.

This audience of young people aged 10-16 years, who are on the brink of life’s great adventure, are part of the show from the start. Sitting facing an enormous mirrored wall that is one side of an immense ‘party box’ from which booming music blasts, they’re all reflected in the scenario as it unfurls. Theater Artemis know just how to tap in to their audience – how to get them excited about being in a space and embedding them deeply in the production, while planting questions for further consideration. There’s never really any fourth wall as the three performers (Elias De Bruyne, Tim Van Dongen, and Claudia Kanne), clutching their scripts, explain that they’re unable to start the play because someone else’s party is still happening in the box, although it should have ended before the show’s start time. We’re kept on the hook for an excruciating length of time while they try to work out how to get inside the party, their words barely audible under the noise. Jetse Batelaan’s direction is meticulously precise, testing the audience as the music pounds and frustration builds, and challenging exactly how far they can be pushed before they react. 

Just when you think it’s time to abandon the play, we’re told spaces have become available in the box and there’s a manic rush from audience members, leaping from their seats to get in. It’s a health and safety nightmare as kids jump over each other, stumbling down steps, shrieking. And when they’re in we have no clue what they’re doing, left outside wondering until finally the space lights up, walls become transparent, and we see them partying wildly without us. As a hilarious, chaotic evening unfolds, the trio find themselves challenged with fundamentally existential questions about how to get in the box, who should be in there… and how to get out again.

The hyper-realistic performances from De Bruyne, Van Dongen and Kanne are exceptional – detailed and magnificently human, delivering hilariously dry comic observations and characterisations in increasingly ridiculous situations. They’re concerned about who’s watching their bags, bicker over who’s most likely to get in, and suffer disappointment when the party they have longed to join also throws up problems that test loyalties and induce feelings of isolation. There’s a real complexity beneath the show’s playfulness as they see each other differently at different times when the madness alters; when left alone in or outside of the party, or questioning their reality, with faceless partygoers by their side – an insightful reflection on social pressures. And although all of this is signalled by the scripts they hold, it’s clear that the drama that is life doesn’t always play out in the way suggested on paper.

This is a wild ride of a show that brilliantly considers human relationships with the dominant social dynamic. If it has one flaw it’s that not everyone in the audience will have the opportunity to choose inclusion in the party – you need to be reactive and mobile to join in, which could exclude people who can’t rush to the front for whatever reason. However, it’s a fabulously surprising event, veering from upbeat to bewildering as it enacts the idea of FOMO and testing the boundaries of what is and isn’t possible with young people actively in the frame.

It Would Be Such a Shame if You Missed Out is aimed at ages 10-16 years. It has completed its run as part of Imaginate Festival.

Created by Theater Artemis in collaboration with Theater Basel
Directed by Jetse Batelaan
Set design by Marloes van der Hoek and Wikke van Houwelingen
Sound design by Toben Piel