FORM-Idea

We live in a world flooded with information—24-hour news cycles, constant notifications, and a relentless stream of global crises. Amid this sensory overload comes The Container, an innovative new audio performance now showing at The New Diorama. This bold theatrical work captures the emotional and psychological toll of living in an age where silence is nearly extinct.

Devised, written, directed, and performed by Alan Fielden, in collaboration with Jemima Yong, Clara Potter-Sweet, Ben Kulvichit, and Tim Cape, The Container is a genre-blending piece that confronts the audience with the raw, immersive experience of modern soundscapes. Described as a “multi-vocal performance exploring the violence and tenderness of living through catastrophe,” the production invites us to examine how the noise of the world not only surrounds us—but invades us.

The stage is minimal: five music stands, dim lighting, and a cast of multi-instrumentalist performers. Through an intricate mix of speech, sound, and global music, the audience is transported through landscapes both familiar and foreign. Along the way, brief, intimate glimpses of individual lives emerge—each one grappling with identity, chaos, and the need to connect in a world increasingly defined by dissonance.

Drawing visual and emotional parallels to Nicolas Roeg’s cult classic The Man Who Fell to Earth, The Container evokes the moment David Bowie’s alien character is overwhelmed by a bank of television screens—a symbol of fractured reality and sensory collapse. Similarly, Fielden’s production captures that same breaking point, bringing the audience face-to-face with the unsettling reality of contemporary life.

Yet within the storm, there is tenderness. Moments of human vulnerability shine through, made all the more powerful by the chaos that surrounds them.

The Container is more than theatre—it’s a resonant commentary on how we live today. In a world we’ve engineered to be constantly “on,” it challenges us to consider: how much sound can we absorb before we begin to disappear beneath it?

The Container was recently at London’s Diorama Theatre.