Dave and Daisy have it all. Multi-channel TV, all the informationthey ever desired on the internet and a nice glass of wine at theend of the day are all in place in the fortress they call home.
In a consumer-based culture they've done well from, what goes onbeyond their four walls doesn't concern them. Yet still there's avoid needing filled, so they create a virtual child. A perfect pink-cheeked cherub would be too easy, too boring, so they design Victor,an ASBO-sporting animal resembling Viz comic's Rat Boy, whoseunfettered antics become an online sensation, applauded, fetishisedand reviled in equal measure.
There are shades of JG Ballard in Carter's study of wild childrenpast and present-day prime time in Nicholas Bone's production forhis Magnetic North company. This is particularly apparent in the wayDave and Daisy's elaborate anthropological construction ispersistently undercut by the mundanities of a pizza being deliveredor the infantile attractions of an electronic toy car. But thesideshow they create, as illustrated by design duo Sans facon'sprojected captions accompanied by woozy fairground organ music, isno cerebral dystopia, but an increasingly absurd fun house whereDavid Ireland's Davy and Lesley Hart's Daisy's obsession appearsincreasingly ridiculous as they regress.
Inspired by studies of 19th-century feral infants as much asreality TV show The Scheme, this is an initially small-looking butultimately compelling and surprisingly funny look at humanbehaviour.
It's also deeply idealistic as, by the end of the play, outsidein the real world, civilisation may be fading, but one way oranother, the children really are revolting.
Wild Life, Cumbernauld Theatre
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