Brilliant Jerks review: Rating the Uber trip as a culture soured by machismo

Henry Hitchings16 March 2018

The inspiration for this spicy hour-long piece from Joseph Charlton is his work as a journalist covering Uber, though he’s certainly not claiming it’s a docudrama. He’s alive to the essential paradox of being employed as a driver - a solitary role, yet also one that involves moments of revealing intimacy. At the same time he’s intrigued by the gig economy’s voracious overlords and their disconnection from the people toiling on the front line.

The result, in Rosy Banham’s lean production, is a vision of a truly sour corporate culture. At the top level it’s defined by macho excess, grandiose mission statements and an insistence on giving every element of the business a snappy name that’s frankly beyond parody.

There’s a compelling, taut performance from Luke Thompson as insinuating boss Tyler, who likens the fruits of his technological wizardry - his API, in the jargon of the industry - to a cathedral. Determined to frame almost everything in terms of conflict, he refers to his office as a dojo, and Thompson makes each encounter he has seem charged with the potential for sadistic violence.

Donal Gallery has a quiet charisma as coder Sean, along for the ride and exhilarated by the glittering vulgarity of a work trip to Las Vegas. But the emotional substance comes mainly from Mona Goodwin’s Mia, a cab driver from Oldham who mourns the cost of her chaotic past as she fends off sleazy, sometimes dangerous punters. It’s Mia, too, whose experience sharpens our sense of a business model that’s at once problematic and sleekly irresistible.

The Vaults is a grungy venue, not ideal for a play set in the world of high tech, and the traverse staging doesn’t help with the tricky acoustics. Still, Charlton is a perceptive writer with a pithy turn of phrase, and it would be good to see him find a broader canvas for this material.

Until March 18

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in