Bull (Touring) ★★★★

The famous quote by Mexican poet Cesar A. Cruz that “Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable” will certainly ring true for audiences of Mike Bartlett’s play, Bull (seen at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, currently touring). An unflinching exploration of the personal power politics within a downsizing corporate environment, it’s a hard-hitting, taut sixty minutes that will force you to examine your own behaviours.

The premise is straightforward: a company is downsizing by a third and three employees have to meet their boss to fight to stay in their jobs. A simple office set, delineated within an LED square, becomes the battleground between the three – the Stephen Joseph Theatre’s in-the-round seating amplifying the feel of a boxing ring.

What is clear from the off is that one employee, Thomas, has been designated the sacrificial candidate for the cull by the other two, Isobel and Tony. As they wait for the arrival of their boss, they set about undermining his confidence and self belief in any way possible. Just as writer Mike Bartlett created a train of doubt starting with one small object in his hit TV drama, Doctor Foster, in this play Isobel and Tony begin with micro-aggressions to undermine Thomas. Asking why he chose to wear that suit, quizzing him what his father did, probing why he calls himself Thomas rather than Tom, it’s like they are picking at any loose threads to find the weaker seams.

As the accusations fly, the savagery of the personal attacks increases. There may have been collusion between the two ahead of this decisive meeting with Team Leader Tony not telling Thomas to have printed-off sales figures with him. It also emerges that he has been deliberately excluded from the regular post-work drinks on Thursdays.

Bull, by turns, switches between the ludicrous competitiveness of TV’s The Apprentice and some pernicious childish playground bullying. The performances are uniformly excellent. Rilwan Abiola Owokoniran oozes oleaginous surface charm to mask a decidedly cut-throat interior. Rebecca Blackstone could rival Succession‘s Roy family for being so compellingly vile. Brimming with cheek-boned malice, her Isobel is a terrifying, icy predator. What works so well about their performances is that they never descend into cartoonish villainy. There’s a credibility to the way they attack Thomas.

Rob Ostlere‘s Tony is note perfect. His awkwardness is a constant thread within his portrayal whether his demeanour is defensive or if he is trying to fight back. Whilst your sympathy would naturally tend towards the underdog, in this case Bartlett’s script makes that complicated. When Thomas yells at Isobel “You really are a bitch”, his sexism is not a one-off. It’s highlighted that he’ll directly challenge his female colleague but not his male colleague for the same behaviour.

Sally Woodcock‘s taut direction means the energy and tension never drops once in the relentless hour that Bull plays out. Bartlett’s dialogue is crisp and sinewy as befits one of our best television scriptwriters. If there is any faulty in the script, it’s that there is only one direction of travel so you may reach the ending before the performance does.

However, Bull has a timeliness and resonance beyond corporate office politics. Stray onto social media and you won’t need to look hard to find similar daily bullying and the desire to eviscerate an opponent. This well-executed, hard-hitting drama may be a tough watch but it has much to say about the pervasive spread of bullying within our daily lives.