REVIEW: Turn Your F*cking Phones Off, Hannah Maxwell, EdFringe 2026 ★★★★★

Following last year’s tour de force BABYFLEAREINDEERBAG (WIP), Hannah Maxwell returns, true to her word, with the winner of the popular vote: Turn Your F*cking Phones Off. Their signature blend of wit, politics, and optimism is used to its full potential in this prescient, eminently watchable, and deeply thought-provoking solo show.

Maxwell takes us through her time in strategic communications, working with foreign governments against Russian state propaganda, in order to fund her theatre making. During this period she was also touring her first solo show, I AmDram, a fact that is very funny in isolation, but becomes genuinely harrowing as the show progresses.

She uses stories from this period of her life alongside unrelenting spoken word, overstimulating multimedia snippets, karaoke duets, and a selection of increasingly ridiculous James Bond-esque costumes to draw our attention to the way that our reliance on and addiction to technology is being used to sow discord and drive wedges between us. 

As mums the world over will echo: It’s because you’re always on that phone. Maxwell uses their boundless intelligence to make a pretty convincing case that: a significant amount of the world’s ills stem from (or at least are perpetuated by) the fact that phones (or the internet) give the powers that be (or want to be) the tools to manipulate populations.

She explains how data is mined (even by Roombas!), sold, digested, and used to predict our personalities, choices, and even our thoughts. Most critically, she talks about how the internet has trapped us all in our individual echo chambers, feeding us only what we want to gobble down and thus stratifying our differences. 

Some of the arguments that Maxwell is making are genuinely frightening, and there were points that had my breath catching in my chest as I made a mental note to log off a bit more. But at her heart, Maxwell is an optimist. The most remarkable thing about this production is that they spent an hour kind of yelling at me to be scared of everything, and I still left buoyant. I looked my fellow audience members in the eye and committed to making more time in my life for in-person community, for talking to those with different perspectives and finding the similarities.

The precision of her stagecraft really sets Maxwell apart. She has a kind of middle class no-nonsense approach to crowdwork reminiscent of a kind but strict head teacher that lightly forces participation, ensuring that we find the common ground that is essential to her argument. The mini-games dotted throughout are genius, building the framework of her argument for her, and keeping our poor tech-addled minds engaged and receptive to what she is telling us.

Above all, Maxwell is a joy to watch. An endlessly fascinating performer with a dry wit and easy emotionality alongside her intimidating intelligence and unique perspective. And this piece really feels like it comes from a personal place; not only does she have a wealth of experience and anecdotes to build an interesting and topical show, but she cares, deeply and genuinely, about the issue at hand. You believe her when she says that this is her form of activism, taking the art form that she loves and sharpening it into a rallying cry.

Prescient, masterful, and hopeful despite itself, Turn Your F*ucking Phones Off  is not a lecture, it’s a little bit of magic. They might not read this as they have forsaken social media, but hopefully a kindly producer fancies printing this out to let them know that they are the highlight of my Fringe.

Drink recommendation: Diet Coke, once again. Pairs perfectly with Maxwell’s crisp and refreshing delivery (and ideal to restock your fridge with!).

You can catch Turn Your F*cking Phones Off at Summerhall from 6-31 August (not 17, 24) at Various Times (60 mins). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.