A disturbing yet utterly compelling play with microscopic intensity that doesn’t allow you to look away.
A decade after Mike Bartlett’s Olivier – Awarding winning production Bull departed Sheffield for its transfer to the Young Vic in London, Mesh Theatre co. brings it charging back to its homeland. Mike Bartlett initially penned this play after watching a Bullfight in Mexico City ‘It elicited something disturbing in the audience and yet thrilling… I am asking why we enjoy cruelty’. This quotation sums up this razor-sharp one act play, intended to be witnessed from ringside seats, close to the action, the fear and the brutality. It is shocking and so very familiar – Bullying, we witness this behaviour from cradle to grave, in school, in the workplace, in every interaction with others. Direction by Sally Woodcock is tight and fierce with minute detail and intense focus. Myles Robinson’s lighting and Sound Design adds to the microscopic intensity of the play and forces the audience to watch the cruelty without looking away. An uncomfortable feeling but as Bartlett intended one we are compelled to observe.
In an intimate theatre-in-the-round setting with the only set; designed by Alex Marker; being a table and three chairs, we meet the three candidates who are awaiting a meeting with the Boss, to decide who is to be culled as the firm is downsizing its staff. The cast are tremendous in role, Rob Ostlere as Thomas is every bit the victim and his latter ineffective frustration is relatable and palpable. Rebecca Blackstone as Isobel is cold and vicious but it is in her final soliloquy that Isobel gives us a shocking realisation about bullying as she states that it’s like a culling, an intended animalistic function to ensure the fittest survive and the weakest are removed. I have often thought of a Bully as a perpetrator and as a victim but never had I coldly considered this as a needed, natural and intrinsic human survival instinct. That in mind Mike Bartlett does his intended job well and with flair. Rilwan Abiola Owokoniran as Tony has great stage presence and oozes confidence and arrogance in abundance, the ring leader and untouchable, clever and deceitful. The fourth and final cast member enters the stage for a short period as we see the undermining and relentless chipping away manifest itself in Thomas’ reaction to the Boss played with gusto and aplomb by Tim Frances. Too busy and too lofty to unravel the web Tony and Isobel have ensnared Thomas with the culling is done and we left to witness the aftermath.
Bull forces its audience to hold a mirror up to society and indeed ourselves and our behaviours, it is intentionally harsh and yet thought provokingly essential to view. Bull opens its UK regional tour at the Sheffield Playhouse until Saturday 18th January 1925 before moving to Oxford, Scarborough, Bristol and Colchester through January and February 2025. Ringside sets are awaiting.
Reviewer: Tracey Bell
Reviewed: 16th January 2025
North West End UK Rating: