Flip! 
Soho Theatre, London 
 

WHEN two 24-year-old friends decide to broadcast their boisterous, light-hearted chats across the internet, their opinionated witticisms and catchphrases begin to trend big-time, leading at first to mutual excitement and then to a falling-out over how far they should be going to monetise their new-found popularity. 
 
Carleen (Leah St Luce) is initially the more circumspect of the two, but gradually embraces what she sees as the fun and games of “dumb internet theatre,” while Crystal (Jadesola Odunjo) moves the other way, backing off in horror after having been gung-ho at the outset. 
 
Carleen’s subsequent lone journey into a world where identity and free-will is subsumed by shallow corporatism is housed in a very modern social media setting, yet is essentially a time-honoured tale about the dangers of selling out and the emptiness of fame and fortune. 
 
Therein lies the weakness of Racheal Ofori’s otherwise entertaining two-handed play, for despite its immersion in a world of AI and algorithms, of Instagram and influencers, the moral of the story is age-old and therefore rather too familiar. 
 
Nevertheless Ofori provides her two feisty characters with much to say that is insightful and amusing, and St Luce and Odunjo, well-choreographed by movement director Aline David, do her proud, never missing a beat as the quick-fire, full-on dialogue comes thick and fast over 75 unbroken minutes.  
 
There’s a disconcertingly abrupt ending and quite a lot left unresolved, but overall Flip! is a worthy exploration of the damage that can be done when we put attention seeking and aggrandisement before all else. 
 
Runs until 25 November 2023. Box office: 020 7478 0100, sohotheatre.com