A real-life tale of corporate tax fraud doesn’t sound the most riveting material for a Fringe show, but this sonically and visually stunning theatre piece from Danish company Teater Katapult could never be called dull. The focus is a nameless young lawyer whose avarice led him to become embroiled in a murky network of bankers and stock traders who pilfered over 60 billion euros from several European governments. When we meet him, he’s being held inside a perspex cube by German authorities and has agreed to inform on his accomplices. This cube then becomes a series of offices, swanky bars, a hospital room, and even a shower, as the lawyer reluctantly gives his statement.
Christoffer Hvidberg Rønje delivers a barnstorming, thrillingly physical performance as our slick, smart and increasingly desperate protagonist. He ricochets around his transparent cage with ferocity and uses white markers on the clear wall facing the audience to lucidly sketch out the complex tax scheme in which he took part. Even more intense is the sound, which is delivered by headphones. We hear the lawyer’s quickening heartbeat, the sounds of pen on paper become deafening as he commits his crimes, and we join him in getting lost in music on a pulsating nightclub dancefloor as his world crumbles. The effect is that we become complicit with this morally bankrupt creature of modern capitalism.
Many have called this “the Wolf of Wall Street on stage”, and these comparisons are apt. Like that Scorsese flick, The Insider both seduces and sickens in equal measure, and that’s what makes this high-tech tale of greed so troubling.
The Insider, Pleasance Dome, until 23 Aug (not 18), 1.30pm