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Anna X, Harold Pinter Theatre London
Mordant critique of an art world infected by neoliberal values
LOST IN A FLOATING WORLD: Nabhaan Rizwan (Ariel) and Emma Corrin (Anna) [Helen Murray]

AN ARTWORK in itself, Anna X opens as an installation, with strobe lighting, electronic music, two dancing actors and surtitles of their clipped, and sometimes misheard, conversation.  

The couple, immersed in the high-octane gadfly life of the New York arts and apps scene, are a world away from their origins. Anna (a superb performance from Emma Corrin) and Ariel (a vulnerable Nabhaan Rizwan) are the protagonists of  this fine new play from Joseph Charlton, directed by Daniel Raggett.  

Its subject matter is the push and pull of shallow and deep identity. Anna, from Ukraine, but posing as a rich Russian, arrives in the city to start an internship with a trendy fashion and art magazine and, of course, wants to open her own art gallery.  

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