Each day, we hear the terms “Fake News”, “Alternative Facts” and “Fake Media”, reported, debated and even tweeted by a US President. The intersection between fact and fiction, entertainment and news, truth and conspiracy is getting blurred, leading us to question what kind of reality have we created for ourselves.
Aimed at ages 14 and over, MK ULTRA is a take on pop culture conspiracy theory about a shadowy elite cult called the Illuminati that are said to control the world and brainwash child actors and singers, puppet performers who indoctrinate us through music videos and mass entertainment.
Mixing pop-style, athletic dance and documentary footage, Kay has teamed up with film-maker Adam Curtis and fashion world wunderkind Gary Card to explore what’s real, what’s a governmental cover-up and what’s fantasy.
Kay said, “explaining my new work MK ULTRA to people has become a lot easier in recent weeks. Six months ago, mentioning conspiracy theory would have drawn a snort from many over the age of 25. But it is different now: ‘Fake News’ and ‘Alternative Facts’ have become the news and the fragile balance of trust between truth, the news, our leaders and the media has been fractured.
“The lid has been lifted, and widespread belief and knowledge of conspiracy theory is now being looked at seriously—something I’ve been advocating for several years as I researched and watched the gulf between the mainstream, the alternative and how young people were navigating their way in this confused world of distrust. Most of us have been in a state of stasis, but I have discovered young people have known and felt the disintegration of belief in our leaders and the stories they tell us.
“Like our pop stars, our programming is starting to dysfunction, we are starting to see through our dream and waking up from the sleepwalk that has taken us into the harsh reality of where we are now. As one young person put it succinctly: ‘we used to believe, we used to be told what was real by our leaders, but since recent events, we’ve been let down. Now we fend for ourselves.’
“In this new world reality, it’s not just the Illuminati, the ‘New World Order’, we need to be afraid of; it’s our lack of leadership and the forces that fill this vacuum as we stumble along, half awake, half asleep. In MK ULTRA, will the characters wake up and realise that there is a new reality just around the corner, or is it ‘over the rainbow’?”
MK ULTRA premières at Birmingham Repertory Theatre on 17 and 18 March and will tour to a further 10 venues across the UK until 18 May 2017.