The modern workplace is ripe for inspiration and parody. Most people who have worked in an office have gotten a general vibe that no one else seems to do anything. There’s a constant suspicion that most of management is completely pointless, and that everyone is just marking time till the weekend starts, rather than doing something productive.
We first meet Ben (Jack Parris) in the middle of the action as he’s about to hit the end of his career. We flashback to how it all began: Ben waiting outside of the offices of the Monolith corporation, when, in a grisly fashion, he acquires a lanyard, one that fast-tracks him into a career as a corporate executive. Soon, his life is one of PowerPoint presentations and three-letter acronyms. He essentially becomes Biznis Kitty from The LEGO Movie, a single-note creature that’s all about smashing targets. This doesn’t last, of course.
This is a surreal horror story of sorts, an ‘office gothic’ tale of a man who is simply seeking clarity and meaning in a world that doesn’t seem to care about such things.
The Unstoppable Rise Of Ben Manager is an unsubtle parody of office life, evoking comparisons to the likes of Kafka, China Miéville and David Lynch in its approach to storytelling. If this were a short film, we’d be talking about infinitely long corridors and Dutch angles. As this is a show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, we instead have good sound design, clever lighting and some great props and costumes to evoke the fundamental oddness of such things. The theatrical approach is so much better for stories like this.
This is a very odd show, and exactly why we come to the theatre. Recommended.
You can book tickets for the Edinburgh Fringe show here and learn more about the artist here.
