Darknet

‘You’re not even a fully formed person yet. Your face is still changing and your bones are still growing but already there’s a detailed map of your personality out there and companies you’ve never heard of are getting rich off it.’

Welcome to Octopus Inc., the internet giant that allows users to exchange personal data for currency. But not everyone is prepared to sacrifice their privacy for an easier life.

A teenager subverts the system in an attempt to save her mother. A visionary tech exec takes shortcuts to get ahead. And a cybercriminal makes a choice between two kinds of freedom.

Darknet navigates through the world of data commodification and the uncharted deep web, shining a light on the things we choose to share online and the places we can hide. It was commissioned and produced by Potential Difference and premiered at Southwark Playhouse, London, in 2016.

Rose Lewenstein is a writer whose plays include: Darknet (Southwark Playhouse); Now This Is Not The End (Arcola); Game of Life (The Yard); Only Human (Theatre503); Entries on Love (Rich Mix) and Ain’t No Law Against Fish ’n’ Chips (Royal Court Young Writers Festival). Her play Psychoslut was featured in the Women@RADA series. She has been a member of the Royal Court’s Supergroup and Young Writers Programme.