Review: FAMEHUNGRY

Performance artist Louise Orwin will do something amazing – but only when she gets 20k likes on TikTok live, aka the number of seats in the O2 Arena, aka a venue she’s never performed in and most likely never will. FAMEHUNGRY explores the human obsession with watching and being watched, but also Orwin’s acknowledgement that performance art is unlikely to result in global stardom, let alone job security and a pension. On this quasi-hero’s journey (complete with a successful TikToker 17 years her junior as a mentor), Orwin seeks an algorithmic Faustian pact: if she plays by the platform’s cryptic rules, can she get the fame and/or cash that she craves?

Taking place simultaneously on TikTok and in Summerhall, Orwin uses both stages to queasy effect. The Summerhall audience get meta-commentary about the repetitive actions, sexualised snacks and inane baby talk required to build a following, while the TikTok crowd get a performance seamlessly augmented for their screens. But as her likes build tantalisingly close to that 20k, that false equivalence between online likes and IRL sales feels increasingly out-dated. This is an entry-level intro to TikTok, yet it’s compelling to watch Orwin wrestle with her love/hate relationship to the nonsensical, disturbing, deeply human stuff that populates the site – let’s call it performance art, after all.