Rachel Dratch, who stars alongside Daniel Radcliffe in the sold-out Off-Broadway premiere of Privacy, made an appearance on Late Night: Seth Meyers to chat about the boundary-pushing work. The Public Theater and Donmar Warehouse production encourages audience members to use their phones and participate during the show—from emailing the cast to taking selfies to getting onstage with them.
The new play is co-created by James Graham and Josie Rourke, and is inspired by a post-Edward Snowden view on privacy and technology. Snowden himself is featured in the show via video.
“Has being in the show affected the way you use your social media and your devices?” Meyers asked Dratch.
Dratch replied that she’d heeded her character’s advice not to leave phones on the table during a conversation at the risk of making a social moment less intimate. She was reluctant to give away too much information about the show, which relies on the element of surprise. Watch the full interview here.
Privacy officially opened July 18 following previews that began July 2. Radcliffe stars as “The Writer” and is joined by fellow cast members Dratch, De’Adre Aziza, Raffi Barsoumian, Michael Countryman and Reg Rogers, playing an ensemble of real-life politicians, journalists and technologists who have all contributed to the show.
Read More: Inside the Private (or Not-So Private) Life of Privacy’s Daniel Radcliffe
Here’s how the theatre bills the new play: “Privacy explores our complicated relationship with technology and data through the funny and heart-breaking travails of a lonely guy (Radcliffe), who arrives in the city to figure out how to like, tag, and share his life without giving it all away. The play uncovers what our technological choices reveal about who we are, what we want and who’s keeping track of it all. This provocative theatrical event will ask audiences to charge their phones, leave them ON during the performance and to embark on a fascinating dive online and into a new reality where we’re all connected…for better or worse.”
Take a look at photos of Radcliffe and the cast in Privacy:
