Star
rating - 5/10
Eighties power ballads greet the audience as they
assemble around the sides of the Crucible's Studio Theatre for Mike Bartlett's
office power play drama Bull. And into the fray of this boxing ring type
arrangement, complete with harsh strip lighting and a water cooler - step the
protagonists. What follows is not pretty, nor is it meant to be.
This is a short one hour drama about the harsh realities
of office politics, which anyone who has ever worked in one knows can be quite
vicious. The trouble is that instead of a subtly nuanced observational piece,
this play takes three sledgehammers, in the shape of two colleagues and a big
boss, to crack a very small nut, in this case Thomas, played by Sam Troughton.
It completely over bakes the harshness and cruelty that he suffers at their
hands, so that the impact is lost.
It simply isn't true to life in terms of how such an
unpleasant situation would be handled, which would be much more underhand and
duplicitous. The action feels relentless, cruel and somewhat pointless. In
reality the sometimes toxic relationships that can develop at work are a lot greyer
than this - and I am not just referring
to the suits. It's a pity but this felt like an opportunity missed.
No comments:
Post a Comment