The Believers Are But Brothers

The Believers Are But Brothers is an interactive lecture/performance show written and directed by Javaad Alipoor and Kirsty Houstey.  It questions the influence and impact of political extremism and on-line masculinity on the internet in our current digital climate.

Alipoor has had significant recognition across Britain and in the USA with this groundbreaking, award-winning political theatre show, which  covers the whole internet gamut - including online trolling, gamers, ISIS, right-wing extremists and the popularity of meme and 4Chan platforms.

Audience members are required to download WhatsUp app on their phones and engage in chat room discussion.  Meanwhile, Alipoor switches between standing and sitting on his desk chair, with a glass screen of hazy rapid images drawing a line between himself and Houstey: on the other side of a panel fixated on a laptop screen. Multiple screens fsignify the changes in contemporary screen habits; no longer are families gathering around the box to watch their favorite sitcoms.

Alipoor assesses his audience and delivers his show accordingly.  A self-proclaimed left-wing Muslim, he informs us that while there are three million Muslims in Britain, only three hundred have been radicalized by ISIS.  He tells us that Twitter accounts allow people to have on-line personalities that contradict their ‘real lives’; he calls them fantasists and claims they are increasingly at risk of radicalization.  He is passionate about educating people and dispelling myths about fake content and extremism, not only for discerning audience members, but for anyone engaged in social media.

Alipoor is a product of the modern age.  Global clicking is a way of life for him and he relishes being able to befriend people to whom he would never otherwise have access, including a gay Rabbi from Alabama.  Meanwhile back in the chat room set up for the show, there is small talk of meeting up at the local café.

Flora Georgiou

Image by Jack Offord.