Review: BULL at Park Theatre

Thomas (Ciaran O’Breen) lacks a certain confidence in both his personal and professional life. His dress sense isn’t up to scratch and he may have something stuck in his hair. His general awkwardness in an office full of ambitious junior execs, long ago caught the attention of sadistic fellow workers Isobel (Jasmine Whipps) and Tony (Danny Lee). The polished but wholly unsavoury pair have joined forces and have made it their mission to taunt and undermine Thomas at a time when the company, in the guise of head honcho Carter (David Sands) needs to reduce headcount. It seems Thomas has next to no chance of retaining his job under their undermining onslaught.

Superficially a tale about bullying and gaslighting, Isobel and Tony go about the business of callously and spitefully dissecting their prey like a pair of sneering brats goading each other to pick the wings off a fly. It is increasingly unpleasant and clearly confusing and tortuous for Thomas to endure. Worse still is the boss’s complicity in superficially assessing the advantages of each candidate before deciding who’ll get the chop.

With dialogue silenced then re-energised through BSL, delivery of the scenes proves a fascinating watch. The moments requiring descriptive talents to convey a sports car drive and other nuggets where physical expression takes the place of the spoken word are effective and enlightening. Pity then that this modernist, Darwinian, survival of the fittest tale, finds characters delighting in such abject cruelty and then gloating as their victim unravels.

In an age where company HR departments would collectively wince if the play were put before them, I found myself struggling to believe the premise, allegorical or otherwise, but I commend Director Paula Garfield’s efforts and that of her youthful troupe of players. Ben Glover’s AV design work contributes binary coded horns (among other things) to Paul Burgess’ set, which leans largely on jade carpet tiles, a couple of office chairs and a water machine to convey an office environment within the small playing area.

It may previously have won awards, but in a time of ubiquitous greed and corruption, I struggled to warm to the material. BULL runs 75 minutes and continues at Park’s small space until 24th October.