Lunch With Bernays

Samira Spring is the exciting, young Director behind the fascinating expressionistic account of controversial figure, Edward Bernays, the Grandfather of propaganda, and how his work has paved the way for data mining and other nefarious contemporary themes.

Edward Bernays is the nephew of Sigmund Freud; he championed ‘alternative facts’ and pioneered the use of propaganda to control the ‘bewildered masses’ that make up governable populations. Bernays, a self-described feminist worked closely to create the 1929 tobacco campaign promoting smoking amongst females by labelling  cigarettes as feminist ‘torches of freedom’; he was additionally instrumental in overthrowing the democratically elected Guatemalan leader to install a US-friendly fascist dictator in 1954. Bernays believed that people needed to be controlled and a fabricated democracy was democracy nevertheless.

Spring is only 24 and already has a few more plays and directing obligations in the works post Lunch With Bernays. Spring made her first short film at eight years old and was involved in her first major production by 10. Suffice to say that she has found her calling; Spring deeply credits the five members cast and speaks incredibly highly of the people at 180 Collective, the theatre collective behind Lunch With Bernays. So keep an eye out for, and be sure to follow 180 Collective.

Spring’s take-home message: be empowered enough to apply critical thinking to our reality for positive societal outcomes. Spring urges audiences to be intelligent and have agency over their own decision-making.

Jun 21-24. KXT Bordello Room, Level 4, 244-246 William St, Potts Point. $25+b.f. Tickets & Info: www.kingsxtheatre.com

By Jarrod Wolfhunter