Review: Three Billion Letters (Riverside Studios)

Review by Raphael Kohn

⭐️⭐️

What makes us, us? I suppose it’s in the title of this show, the 3 billion base pairs (or ‘letters’) forming our genetic code that determine how our bodies function. It’s certainly a question that production company ‘TAKDAJA’ aims to answer in a brisk 60 minutes at Riverside Studios, through a show that is part lecture, part ethics debate, and part… well, I’m actually not sure how to end that triad. It’s certainly a stage experience. I’m just not quite sure I can put my finger on exactly what that experience can be named as.

It starts like few shows I’ve seen do, with an invitation to participate in ‘data collection’ by filling out a questionnaire. And believe me, that’s not the end of the audience participation, because the seat number on your ticket is essentially meaningless. Over the course of the hour, different genetic traits are described and explored, and in turn, the audience is rearranged across the room according to their responses. It seems like a nice idea at first, and no doubt gets you into the swing of things, though what it really means for the narrative is unclear.

Instead, it chops up the show a bit, pausing the flow as you get up off your chair, awkwardly look around to see if everyone is actually taking part or if they’re waiting for you to do so first, and then meander over to a new seat. Credit where credit’s due though, somehow the press night audience did get genuinely into it and were more than happy to vacate their seat for another almost without hesitation. But this is only the start of the audience interaction, for there’s plenty more to come.

It's all spliced into something of a narrative, or a message, or perhaps just an idea, about genetics. Though quite what the idea is, I’m not really sure. It’s told through loosely connected sketches, describing different aspects of our genome. Some of it is about the nature of inherited diseases. Some of it is about medical ethics and the legality of ‘designer babies’. And some of it involves a wide variety of miscellaneous props, but I have absolutely no idea why.

The show proclaims itself to be ‘created from the teams’ personal DNA test results’, which manifests itself brilliantly in a segment about the heritability of dementias, but unfortunately falls down otherwise. In its disconnected sequence of scenes, the best shine in interesting meditations on the show’s themes but as they become more abstract, it finds itself being closer to confusing than inspiring. Why does a collection of Styrofoam pellets get randomly dropped from the ceiling? Why were bubbles blown into my face during a mock newsreel? And why are people having a picnic on the stairs?

I think my questions really encapsulate the core problems with the show. There are so many questions to be asked – either from myself or by the show – but it feels as if there are no answers in sight. Certainly, the trio of writer-performers of Mimmi Bauer, Patrycja Dynowska and Michał Szpak have intrigue and spark behind their theatre-making, and juicy questions to ask through this medium, but perhaps it remains the case that they’re not exactly sure how to ask them theatrically.

The core building blocks are there. The simple (though functional) set, designed by Helen Hebert, gives the trio of performers an interesting array of balls suspended from the ceiling to play with, with a giant claw (made by Callum Daniel Fellows) in the centre. Quite what it means is sometimes unclear, though it’s probably a symbol for the ‘lucky-dip’ nature of our genetic inheritance from our parents. It’s all lit nicely too, often beaming straight onto the audience, thanks to Theodor Spiridon’s bold work in the fringe space.

Somehow, it developed into an ethics seminar which made me feel a bit like I was back at university. But again, there’s something going a bit right in a show that doesn’t publicise its audience-participation aspects at all but gets genuine responses, insightful contributions, and even questions asked from the darkness of the audience, like a student would to a lecturer. There’s some educational value in that, at least.

As a work of science communication, it’s transiently interesting, at least shedding light on some interesting aspects of genetics and present-day debates. It’s almost like going to a public science fair. But somehow, the DNA strands don’t quite align here, and the end product is a show that might have a message, but at present, it remains too coded and unclear for it to really make much of an impact.

Three Billion Letters plays at Riverside Studios until 17^th August 2025. Tickets from https://riversidestudios.co.uk/see-and-do/three-billion-letters-186440/