Brilliant Jerks - Southwark Playhouse Borough, The Little
Mar 5, 2023 13:38:14 GMT
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Steve, showgirl, and 1 more like this
Post by mkb on Mar 5, 2023 13:38:14 GMT
This was unexpectedly good, consisting of fifteen scenes that are actually three stories of five scenes each cycling around. The uniformly outstanding cast of three (Sean Delaney, Shubham Saraf, Kiran Sonia Sawar) each take on multiple roles, revealing in the process a flare for various world accents.
The subject is Uber, although never named. That sounds dull, but it's not. This is a fascinating piece from North-East playwright Joseph Charlton (whose ANNA X I missed), and amongst the drama I learnt some interesting snippets about how the ride-hailing software functions.
For example, the answer to surge pricing, which loses customers, was to pre-empt where it would occur, notify drivers that there would be lots of business if they went to that spot at a certain time, and thus lessen the likelihood that surge pricing would be triggered while simultaneously maximising the number of journeys. The losers would be the drivers expecting premium rates and not getting them.
Factoids aside, the drama is strong. We have three experiences of what it is like to work for this digital start-up and the far-reaching effects on their personal lives.
Tale one sees the perspective of a female driver, recruited "before the rates went down". This is set in Glasgow with several local references. Apparently it was Manchester for an earlier version of the show. The playtext encourages the location be adapted to suit the casting.
Next up is the view from inside the dog-eat-dog world of the high-flying developers of the software, the brilliant jerks of the title. (This is my field of work, and made me think my employer is perhaps not so bad after all!)
Finally, tale three sees how the business came about via its two founders and how their cynical modus operandi was deliberate and how unethical behaviour was actively encouraged.
The interweaving scenes come thick and fast, and my only complaint is that it's all a little intense going straight through in 85 minutes. I would have liked an interval to catch my breath.
Recommended.
Four stars.
One act: 15:33-16:58
The subject is Uber, although never named. That sounds dull, but it's not. This is a fascinating piece from North-East playwright Joseph Charlton (whose ANNA X I missed), and amongst the drama I learnt some interesting snippets about how the ride-hailing software functions.
For example, the answer to surge pricing, which loses customers, was to pre-empt where it would occur, notify drivers that there would be lots of business if they went to that spot at a certain time, and thus lessen the likelihood that surge pricing would be triggered while simultaneously maximising the number of journeys. The losers would be the drivers expecting premium rates and not getting them.
Factoids aside, the drama is strong. We have three experiences of what it is like to work for this digital start-up and the far-reaching effects on their personal lives.
Tale one sees the perspective of a female driver, recruited "before the rates went down". This is set in Glasgow with several local references. Apparently it was Manchester for an earlier version of the show. The playtext encourages the location be adapted to suit the casting.
Next up is the view from inside the dog-eat-dog world of the high-flying developers of the software, the brilliant jerks of the title. (This is my field of work, and made me think my employer is perhaps not so bad after all!)
Finally, tale three sees how the business came about via its two founders and how their cynical modus operandi was deliberate and how unethical behaviour was actively encouraged.
The interweaving scenes come thick and fast, and my only complaint is that it's all a little intense going straight through in 85 minutes. I would have liked an interval to catch my breath.
Recommended.
Four stars.
One act: 15:33-16:58