Daniel Radcliffe is returning to the stage, and this time it isn’t to the bright lights of Broadway. The Women in Black and Harry Potter star is taking on the role of Edward Snowden in an off-Broadway production of Privacy. According to Entertainment Weekly, the play is a slightly non-traditional take on the trials, tribulations, and lessons of Edward Snowden:

Privacy will explore how technology and privacy relate in our current digital age, having been inspired by the revelations of Edward Snowden. Radcliffe will star as “The Writer,” a lonely man who moves to a new city. In line with the themes of technology and social media, the play will encourage the audience to leave their phones on during the performance.

With zero regards to the actual quality of the play, sitting through a night of cell phones on and out at the theatre sounds abjectly terrible beyond measure. When considered within the larger themes of the play and the point it is going to try and make about our modern times, the idea almost works, but otherwise seems obnoxious and like a night-ruining detail.

This casting announcement positions Radcliffe into a direct comparison with Joseph Gordon-Levitt in his upcoming role in Oliver Stone’s Snowden. The film is a much more straight forward take on Snowden’s story, if not the lessons behind the events, so the play and film are only in direct competition with each other as much as — well as much as a high-budget film and an off-Broadway play are ever really in competition. But for people who have the opportunity to catch both, it will be interesting to see whose performance is the better of the duo.

(via Entertainment Weekly)