Clicks as a weapon

“Nothing is certain. Nobody is anybody,” the actresses declare, looking directly at the audience. The End of the West centres on a fictional hit TV series that explores a Russian troll factory. Using fake accounts and programmed bots, attempts are made to manipulate public opinion in Western democracies. It quickly becomes clear to the audience: we are all affected and suddenly find ourselves right in the thick of the dark side of digitalisation.

A cosy 90s-style living room, the lighting is dim, the wallpaper is orange, and a Titanic poster hangs on the wall. Actresses Sofia Borsani, Janna Rottmann and Stefanie Steffen take to the stage in Britney Spears-style outfits, with sombre synth beats playing in the background. The stage set remains constant and familiar, whilst the plot constantly shifts between narrative levels. Various media are used to convey sometimes fictional narratives, sometimes real historical events. In this way, constant consumption in the digital space is simulated: quiet moments of pause, which would allow space for personal reflection, are not provided for.

In his text, Dresden-born author Lars Werner examines internet trolls who, for example, launch attacks on Western targets from St Petersburg by falsifying news sites or flooding the internet with propaganda using bots. Werner says his text was originally over 70 pages long. The author’s intensive research is evident in this dense piece: it must have been a challenge for the director to distil the complex content into an 80-minute play without producing half-truths through omissions.

At the heart of the play is the shared ‘Bingen’ experience of the three actresses in a reality TV soap. The audience often looks into the cathode-ray tube television alongside the trio, following the everyday life of the series’ protagonist, Sascha, a particularly ambitious internet troll. At times, a segment of the self-produced series – including AI-generated clips – is shown on screen; at other times, we hear a narrative voice; and at other times still, the actresses themselves take on the role of the series’ producers.

In this way, the theatre is transformed into a space of constant self-examination: Which statements are based on facts, and which on speculation? As the East-West conflict is explored – a subject that requires a certain amount of prior knowledge – it certainly doesn’t hurt if you haven’t already destroyed your own receptiveness through ‘brain rot’.

‘Woke mob’, ‘memes’, ‘engaged community’: buzzwords of our time crop up time and again, yet this language does not quite seem to fit into the production. This results in repeated disconnects. The stage and the characters are styled in a 90s look, yet the plot is set in a highly digitalised world. Meanwhile, the audience consists not only of many children of the 90s, but also older people who grew up without smartphones, yet now have to grapple with the negative aspects of the internet. This includes the fact that running an AI data centre requires millions of litres of water every day, but also that the digital realm has long been a theatre of hybrid warfare. Clicks are no longer merely innocent acts of entertainment, but have now become a weapon.

By the time ‘Dreams’ by The Cranberries starts playing, you feel as though you’re in a bad dream and find yourself longing for the (supposedly) idyllic 90s – the time before the internet. The End of the West is a play that shakes you up, is aesthetically engaging, keeps you on your toes thanks to its pace, and relentlessly raises questions: What is real here, what is true, what effect do my clicks have, which facts actually constitute the truth, and what can I still believe in this overly complex present?

The End of the West, by Lars Werner in a production by Theater Winkelwiese, runs until 6 December 2026.