Nicholas Denton and Anna Lise Phillips in Melbourne Theatre Company's Wild (photograph by Jeff Busby)The play, which was first produced by Hampstead Theatre in 2016 and already feels a bit dated, indulges in a peculiarly British send-up of the American myth of liberty and justice for all. In one key scene, the woman bursts in on the young man while he is doing some midnight sit-ups. She tosses him a novelty cowboy hat, the gift of a prostitute in the bar downstairs, and he spends the next ten minutes sprawling like a Wild West stripogram. Billy the Kid, eat your heart out.

In fairness to Bartlett, there is the potential for more complexity in the part of the Snowden character, but Nicholas Denton lacks polish and nuance. Anna Lise Phillips’s performance as the woman is stuck on one note as she reels on her heels and bobs and staggers around the stage, making too much of something easy. Toby Schmitz is interesting and occasionally thrills with his creepy grimaces when the devil peeks out from behind the mask.

Director Dean Bryant is tidy but struggles to make the space come to life. Sometimes the vaguely amateurish quality of this Melbourne Theatre Company production feels deliberately orchestrated, as if to create a Truman Show effect where nothing is real and no one can be trusted; but behind the shoddiness there is only more shoddiness – it goes all the way down.

The alternation between seriocomic patter and Pinter-lite menace is occasionally punctuated by long silences as the young man, apparently overwhelmed by the enormity of his situation, retreats to the irreducible privacy of the mind. These silences are the most moving – most melancholy and lingeringly soulful – feature of Bryant’s production. It is only when the talking stops, when the whole play seems momentarily suspended, that we get any real insight into the absurdity of Snowden’s situation; and it is in such moments that the Snowden-like character is most sympathetic.

Was Snowden’s sacrifice in vain? That is the question at the heart of Bartlett’s play. His two advocati diabolorum insist that most Americans aren’t at all bothered by the revelation that their government is spying on them. They don’t want to be wild and free; they want to be secure and pampered. Yes, a few intellectuals continue to debate concepts like transparency, accountability, and the consent of the governed; but most people just want reliable wi-fi and movies on demand.

Nicholas Denton, Toby Schmitz, and Anna Lise Phillips in Melbourne Theatre Company's Wild (photograph by Jeff Busby)

And so, in its final moments, Wild reverses its terms and becomes a critique of the masses rather than a commentary on whistle-blowers. That is, it transforms into serious comedy about trivial people – one that accuses all of us. Still, it’s not an accusation with much bite, and the play ultimately comes off as a super-sceptical and rather nihilistic farce. This in itself is typical of public debate in a post-Snowden world. Of course, cynicism and disillusionment flourish where political freedom is guaranteed by ubiquitous surveillance. And so Wild resembles in its bleak triviality the thing it seeks to criticise.

Wild (Melbourne Theatre Company) is written by Mike Bartlett and directed by Dean Bryant. The season continues in the Sumner, Southbank Theatre until 9 June 2018. Performance attended: 10 May.

ABR Arts is generously supported by The Ian Potter Foundation and the ABR Patrons.