When I walked into Hannah Jane Walker & Chris Thorpe’s show I Wish I Was Lonely last night at the LPAC, my first thought was oh no. Please, not another avant garde piece of nonsense. The chairs were set out in a haphazard fashion across Studio 2; there was no set, only a couple of microphones at either side of the room. We had already been asked for our mobile phone numbers as we came into the room, and were told we were allowed – encouraged, even – to keep them with us and on during the performance.

Once in a blue moon does a show genuinely surprise me. This show, I am happy to say, is an addition to that very small list. Walker and Thorpe’s conduction of the some thirty to forty people in attendance was exquisite, leaving almost everyone comfortable enough to put their phones in the middle of the space and even take calls during the show. The way they handled the subject material – the use of technology, particularly of the mobile variety, and how it has changed and reshaped our society to the point where we are never really away from each other even when we’re physically apart – was with the utmost care and trepidation. I certainly didn’t walk away feeling as though technology had ruined my life, and that a time before it was better, but rather with a wider understanding of both the positives and negatives.

Walking out of the show, I felt a connection to the other audience members that I rarely feel when leaving the theatre. It’s ironic, how a show about how technology could potentially be driving us physically apart while keeping us forever together left me feeling physically connected to a group of strangers. We engaged together; we laughed together, we felt sadness, grief. In allowing us to keep our phones present in the performance, we no longer worried about what could be happening in our pocket while we watched. In including our phones, we were more engaged with the world around us – a feat, I feel, was extraordinary.