Silk Road (How To Buy Drugs Online)

Forbidden Websites And A Mysterious Currency

Not to be confused with the ancient network of routes that used commerce to connect the world, this titular Silk Road refers to an underground website with tech-savvy users partial to obscure browsers, cryptocurrencies and a hankering to buy narcotics and other contraband online... Yes, that is a thing. Prompted by the arrest of the alleged facilitator of the notorious site, and inspired by interviews with anonymous users and vendors, Old Vic New Voices graduate, Alex Oates explores the 'Dark-Web' in a dramatic recreation of an internet community that dances with the devil.

Silk Road (How To Buy Drugs Online), stars young talent, Josh Barrow who embodies five different characters in this one-man show directed by Dominic Shaw. It debuted to critical acclaim in 2014 and notably was the first show to be funded by Bitcoin.

What Is Silk Road About?

Bruce Blakemore is a young working-class man who lives with his nan. He happens upon that elusive ideal of "get rich quick" within the murky underbelly of the internet. Realising the difficulty for the average-Joe to access the seedy home of Silk Road and the cryptocurrencies needed, he decides to buy drugs from the site in bulk and then redistribute them... But just how will he do this? With the unsuspecting help of his nan and her now flourishing eBay shop selling tea-cosies. Set in Newcastle's bars and bedrooms, behind beers and laptops, Bruce begins to build his empire. With subtle politics, the play upholds the idea of such cryptomarkets as a potentially safer and generally better alternative to street drug dealing.