Introducing the fourth of the plays in Happy Hour: Going Viral written and directed by Zachariah Chamberlaine.

What controls us? What are we slaves to? One of the first things that springs to mind is advertising. And when you live in a society that constantly stimulates fear and desire in order to make you a better consumer, you’re gonna get a bit messed up.

The Powers That Be have always toyed with our fears and desires to keep people in their place, whether through religion, propaganda or commercial advertising. As increasing volumes of data are being collected to provide us with ‘more relevant adverts’, we seem to be fast approaching a strange and frightening world in which all the adverts are true and all the news is fake....

Sometimes it feels as if there’s no escape from advertising. But if you think things are bad now, you’d better watch out for the next megatrend. Because in "Going Viral", the future of advertising is here and now there really is no escape. At least not for Marshall (Zach Chamberlaine), whose (albeit accidental) commitment to the latest form of advertising is making it very difficult for him to get through a job intervew with Mr Fitzroy (Salomon Marttila), a top executive at a major marketing agency.

But does Marshall end up getting the job or not? You'll just have to come to the show to find out!

Read more about Happy Hour – four short comedies

Photo: Anni Taponen