Ariella, at the piano, with two of the main characters, Ava Fitzhugh, left who plays Andy, and Jessi Rogers, right, who plays Aunt June (all photos: Christopher Lorde)
As with many of the best ideas, it began with a conversation over dinner. Now Ariella Gordon (Law PhD 2023) is taking a musical theatre production to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this August.
The story of Ctrl+Alt+Deceit! stems from Ariella’s LLM at Jesus College which came to an abrupt end due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In the lockdowns which followed after her return to her native Australia, Ariella began writing the first draft of the script and score. This initial draft script and songs were chosen as one of three finalists in a professional musical theatre writing competition in 2020 with the Australian adjudication panel led by Peter Fitzpatrick and the finalists adjudicated by Stephen Schwartz.
Four years later and now six months into her PhD at Gonville & Caius College, Ariella has been casting for roles for the two-week run at the Fringe.
“It began with a conversation at a Cambridge formal dinner, sitting next to a Computer Science PhD, who explained to me how the Dark Web works,” she says.
“My friend and I thought ‘wouldn’t it be really funny if someone who didn’t know how to use the dark web somehow ended up on the dark web?’ And that was the seed for the musical.”
She notes that the Caius Porters are very supportive. “Whenever I pick up the key for the music rooms, they often ask me how the show is going. Marc and Robert assure me that they have been practising their tap dancing for the auditions,” she says.
Ariella’s production is being put on with the Cambridge University Musical Theatre Society. She has long enjoyed musical theatre and music, playing bass for bar nights with the Musical Theatre Society at the ADC Theatre and performing as a vocalist with Fitz Swing.
Following her LLM at Jesus, Ariella worked at the Office of Chief Parliamentary Counsel for the Victorian Parliament during the pandemic, learning about real-world applications of legislation, and as an associate to the Honourable Justice Susan Kenny.
Ariella is now back in Cambridge for a PhD supervised by Professor Alison Young, who has been appointed to be the Commissioner for Public and Welsh Law.
Drawing on her experience in government, she is now looking at disguised legislation. “At the moment, I’m looking at instances where there is no Parliamentary oversight of law-making by administrative actors in Westminster systems,” says Ariella, who is interrogating both the United Kingdom and Australian systems.
Using qualitative data analysis software, Ariella is deciding on which material to use to look at laws made by executive actors which bypass parliamentary scrutiny.
She is pleased to be have joined Caius on a W.M. Tapp Studentship. She has already had the opportunity to present her research at a constitutional law symposium in Dublin.
“I’m very grateful to have had the opportunity to come back and I feel very privileged to have three years to research into this area of law, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the Tapp,” she adds.
