Kate Atwell: Big Data

Translated from English by Ignas BEITSAS

In a world of data where every step we take can be recorded, preserved and analysed, do we still have the right to be forgotten? What would we sacrifice in exchange for security, control and freedom from technology?

Director Augustas Gornatkevičius, drawing on the play “Big Data” by British playwright Kate Attwell, invites us to consider a contemporary version of the Faust myth. Here, the pact with the devil takes a new form: mass media, the market and algorithms replace Mephistopheles, while people become not only consumers of technology but also its raw material—as personal data are continually collected, analysed and sold to businesses.

At the centre of the performance is one of many families: a brother and sister, their partners and their parents. A stranger, M, quietly enters their lives, soon becoming a family friend and confidant to whom the characters can open up and from whom they can receive support and understanding. Through family relationships, especially those between parents and children, the play reveals the experiences of different generations, their difficulties communicating and their attempts to preserve closeness in a rapidly changing reality governed by digital trends.

The right to be forgotten is also central to the work—the possibility of letting go of the past, preserving personal space and not being constantly defined by one’s digital footprint.

“Big Data” invites us to reconsider the relationship between people today and time. Data collection and algorithmic predictions are intruding ever more deeply into personal space, relationships and memories, turning even life’s most intimate experiences into measurable, observable information. The accelerating pace of life pushes out silence, rituals and the possibility of simply being. In the digital world, it is increasingly difficult to listen to ourselves and experience time not as an endless sequence of events, but as meaningful presence with another person. Can we still stop, remember and experience the moment, rather than merely react to an unending stream of external stimuli?