Maxwell's Edinburgh phone show called 'tremendous'
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- Hannah Maxwell's show "Turn Your F*cking Phones Off" runs at Summerhall, Edinburgh, until 31 August, combining mass karaoke and party games with a critique of smartphone dependency and tech-driven harm.
- The show fuses two narrative lines: Maxwell's past work for a clandestine organization that used international travel, data collection, and subliminal messaging to influence public discourse, alongside her personal struggle with screen addiction.
- Maxwell frames algorithmic discord as a deliberate right-wing policy rather than an accidental byproduct, and delivers chunks of the performance through an old-school payphone as a counter-symbol to digital life.
- The two narratives converge when repercussions from her old job sharpen her alarm about algorithmic damage, pushing her character into a digital detox.
- Maxwell workshopped the show's ideas in last year's Edinburgh fringe run "Babyfleareindeerbag," testing material before committing to the big-tech critique over the cute teddy-bear-puppet alternative.
- The reviewer calls the show "tremendous," praising its blend of fervour and merriment, and frames the live audience connections as a real-world alternative to the online forces tearing people apart.
Why it matters: For Edinburgh Fringe audiences weighing their August schedule, the review's strong endorsement signals a must-see run at Summerhall through 31 August — one of the season's rare interactive shows to dramatize algorithmic complicity through both analytical bite and party-game levity.
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