FameHungry. Photo: LouiseOrwin.com
Fame Hungry is an expression that can be applied to most people making regular appearances on TikTok and other social media platforms. Getting your 15 minutes of fame has become incredibly – some might say dangerously – easy in this age of constant connection.
What does this mean for those who open themselves up to a wildly adoring, or critical, audience of strangers? And how has it affected our consumption of performance art?
This is what Louise Orwin’s FameHungry attempts to do in 1.5 hours of dark, savage humour and social satire. Orwin brought her multi-award winning show to the Maltese stage last weekend. Here’s all you need to know about it.
FameHungry dates & other production details
| Play | FameHungry |
| My rating | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5) |
| Produced by | Cassie Catchpole |
| Written, conceived & performed by | Louise Orwin |
| Movement director | Jenni Jackson |
| Sound designer | AJ Turner |
| Collaborator / Performer / TikTok Star | Jaxon Valentine |
| Musician | Nicolas Bertin |
| Additional TikTok cameos | Arthur Jones, Emily Haldane, Ella Simms |
| Lighting designer | Lily Woodford Lewis |
| Dramaturgical support | Rachel Mars |
| Digital dramaturg | Jason Crouch |
| Production manager | Benji Huntrods |
| Set design consultation | Emma Bailey |
| Set & props designer | Dan Stubbs |
| Partners & collaborators | Arts Council England, The Space, Colchester Arts Centre, The Place, Pleasance, Theatre Deli & BAC. In partnership with Dr Amy Orben, University of Cambridge |
| Dates | One-time performance |
| Time | 8PM |
| Content warnings | Language, adult themess |
| Venue | Spazju Kreattiv |
| Duration | 1.5 hours |
| Ticket price | €20 |
| Booking | Official website |
| Language | English |
| Accessibility | Full |
FameHungry narrative
Louise Orwin’s FameHungry doesn’t subscribe to the usual rules of narrative structure. There are a set number of parameters and prompts, granted. But this is a show that’s being streamed live on TikTok and where we’re watching a live exchange between Orwin and two other TikTokers.
There’s a cucumber being used for somewhat questionable purposes on stage – ditto for the lollipop. Random TikTokers try to join in as co-hosts. And the real action takes place in the superscript that runs on the big screen and acts as kind of an emotive translator, deciphering what is happening in TikTok-land to real life lingo.
In short, this narrative may take detours to very unexpected places. The gods of the TIkTok algo may even decide to kick out the entire live stream if they so please.
The above is usually a recipe for disaster. We’ve all yawned our way through a chaotic piece of performance art that promises no-holds-barred reality and instead delivers incomprehensible mayhem. But miraculously, Louise Orwin makes it work in FameHungry. Actually, it does more than ‘work’, really. It soars to spectacular heights of wit and satire, even while we’re shaking our heads at the goings-on.
As cutting commentaries go, FameHungry is razor-sharp.The premise is simple: “Get me to 20,000 likes and I’ll do something amazing”. From then on, the narrative is a magnificent beast run wild, as Orwin proceeds to pull all the pouts, filters, and mildly (by online standards) sexualised poses.
All the while the surtitles provide a cruel contrast to what we see going on the TikTok interface, an intimate stream of consciousness depicting Orwin’s inner thoughts. Here’s one that really made me go “oof”:
“If you’re wondering if I feel disgusted with myself right now, you would be right. Like there’s something rotten inside me. Maybe you’re wondering why I’m doing this. I deserve a slow death for this.”
That said, the narrative works because it’s purely observational. There is no judgement anywhere. This isn’t a matter of “is this okay?”. It’s more of a “this is what we now do, make of that what you will”.
Direction & staging
Visually, the staging is as simple as it gets. Think messy bedroom with ringlights and all accoutrements needed to engage with followers. Throughout the show Orwin creates props out of nothing but her imagination. A cucumber manifests, and the likes shoot up to 16,000. It’s like magic.
The stage transforms drastically towards the end, when Orwin carries out the amazing thing promised in the headline. The actual events are so unremarkable that it’s laughable. But not within the echo chamber of TikTok, where a simple milky drink can hold the answer to whether you become a TikTok star or not.
The play is very physical. Movement director Jenni Jackson must have had her work cut out for her, but work it does – even though in times it does so by a sliver, with the audience risking a milky salute. But everyone was so entranced by what Orwin was doing that I doubt any of us would have protested.
While visually the stage is simple, from a technical perspective it’s anything but. Other local productions have attempted digitally complex staging, with varying degrees of success. In Blanket Ban, for instance, which also ran at Spazju Kreattiv, the narrative relies heavily on the synchronised use of various digital elements.
The musical It-Teatru tal-Miskin is another example, with black and white footage used seamlessly. In the case of FameHungry we have phones and several monitors that all connect to a live feed – all while maintaining a live TikTok stream. Digital dramaturg Jason Crouch and lighting designer Lily Woodford Louis work together beautifully to ensure that this complex set-up goes off without a hitch. Kudos to the entire production team, in fact.
The Cast
Orwin is the star of the show. And what a star she is. She juggles her public TikTok persona and the ‘private’ one she reserves for her physical audience disturbingly well, shedding facial expressions and personalities like a chameleon. We snigger at the digs she delivers about her TikTok followers, even while we admire the way she engages with them. She is the mistress of our emotions, and everyone is in thrall. In this, she is akin to Jamie Cardona’s performance in Mid-Djarju ta’ Student fl’Iskola tal-Knisja.
TikTok star Jaxon Valentine is present in segments for an insightful, and supremely entertaining, exchange about what it means to live your life online. The chemistry between Orwin and Jaxon is sizzling, with the latter acting as a sort of Gen Z mentor while Orwin navigates the TikTok multiverse.
FameHungry – Verdict
FameHungry is unique, in the most excellent use of the word possible. Orwin takes a topic that’s hardly simple, and makes us analyse, think about it, and laugh at her and at ourselves. There is no sermonising. No proclamations about right and wrong. Just pure entertainment that also inspires critical thought. In this regard, it reminded me of Matt Spicer’s Ingrid Goes West – while the narrative device here is different, the topic focuses on the effects of obsession with an online persona.
There are points where I couldn’t align with Orwin’s observations. I don’t believe TikTok has “democratised news”, for example. Then again, I’m very particular about the definition of news. But it has certainly changed our way of consuming content – and this is an anthropological phenomenon that has yet to be tackled meaningfully.
FameHungry tackles it head on. And in the process proves that performance art is not dead. We just have different ways of consuming it nowadays.
Affiliate/Advertising Disclaimer: How I Carry Out Reviews
I received no payment for this FameHungry review and I was offered press tickets. The opinions expressed here are purely my own and the producers had no input/control over what I wrote. There are no affiliate links contained within this page.To learn more about my policies and my reviewing process, visit my Affiliate/Advertising disclosure page.