I have seen three Mike Bartlett plays this year - the career-defining performance of Tim Piggott Smith as King Charles lII in New York; Love, Love, Love, probably the best production of a play I've seen at a drama school - brilliantly directed by Sarah Esdaile at LAMDA; and, tonight, Bull at the Young Vic. Mike Bartlett is one of the finest writers of the day; to say I am a fan is a gross understatement.Bull was earlier produced by Sheffield Theatres (yesterday night opening their Christmas production of Show Boat helmed by outgoing artistic director, Daniel Evans) and it arrives at the Young Vic with a new cast covered in Olivier Award glory. Rightly so.
Ever since the days of Frank Dunlop, the Young Vic has prided itself on being a welcoming theatre. Tonight was no exception as the audience is shoe-horned into the standing and seating spaces of the Studio, here in the round / square of a bull / boxing ring. Soutra Gilmore designs with her customary flair - all glass and brushed aluminium - and we sit pre-show in a gladiatorial environment with high voltage rock anthems blaring forth (sound design by Christopher Shutt).
Bull is a short, 55 minute, one acter - presumably a companion piece with Bartlett’s earlier Cock - with distant echoes of The Comedy of Menace, Pinter and David Mamet's Oleanna. Although outwardly Bull is a play about bullying in the work-place it is so much more with strong performances from the protagonists, Max Bennett and Marc Wootton, and Susannah Fielding who was last seen giving an utterly different performance earlier this season in The Beaux’ Stratagem at the National Theatre.
All three give an all-too realistic portrayal of the work-place at its worse. It makes for uncomfortable viewing. When the boss who makes the decision as to who of the three are to remain employed arrives, a bullish Nigel Lindsay, the tension mounts to an inevitable conclusion. The end result may not be in doubt, but the journey to it is well worth making.
Mike Bartlett has given no clues in his script how he wants his play realised (just the length of the pauses), so top marks for the invention of director, Clare Lizzimore, although points have to be deducted for the production apparently being directed from only one part of the auditorium. If you want to see a significant part of the action of Bull, make sure you are seated at the bar end of the Young Vic Studio and not the opposite side…
A short, powerful, play; wonderfully acted, recommended.
I’m nuts about the HBO TV series GAME OF THRONES so I was very excited to discover this comedy sketch show, promising to parody it. I caught up with it two nights after press night and have been intrigued since to notice a couple of rave reviews on the internet.