Writer: Joseph Charlton
Director: Katie-Ann McDonough
Over the last ten years, one or two ride-sharing companies have transformed taxicab markets around the world. In London, one of the few cities that already had a reputable, well regulated taxi service, the introduction of app-based services like Uber suddenly made it much easier to get a car to your precise location, rather than traipsing to a taxi rank or standing at the kerbside for a black cab to flag down. But like so many modern day businesses, the convenience and good value comes at a cost – not only to the drivers displaced by the incoming tech revolution, but to the newcomer’s own employees.
Joseph Charlton’s Brilliant Jerks, upgraded from an earlier version in 2018’s VAULT Festival, is not specifically about Uber, although the parallels between it and the play’s unnamed company are clearly there. Three separate strands follow a trio of characters at very different echelons of the corporate structure. Sean Delaney’s Sean is a software developer flung into the chaos of developing app systems that are growing exponentially to cater for the company’s exploding user base. Layers above him, company CEO Tyler (Shubham Saraf) has his own struggles to deal with, as does Kiran Sonia Sawar’s Mia, at the bottom of the ladder as a driver in Glasgow, battling with her own demons just as working for the company seems to offer her a path towards stability.
But while examining such companies from root to branch seems like an intriguing idea on paper, in practice the jumping between the play’s three parallel stories lessens the impact of all of them.
The most interesting is Delaney’s mid-level programmer, laying bare some of the sexist “brogrammer” traits present in too many large software development teams. Sean is promoted far quicker than the technically astute and accomplished Amy (played by Sawar, each of the three actors taking multiple roles in their cast mates’ stories). When all the programmers are measured for company-branded leather jackets, the managers decide not to order any for the women as there aren’t enough of them.
Alongside these microaggressions (some of which are not so micro), Charlton also gives Sean an awkward, fumbling, possible romance with his manager (Saraf) that never really has the time to be explored in any depth, especially when personal information about Sean is spread around the office.
Some of the same elements of sexism are present in the plot threads surrounding Saraf’s smooth-talking CEO, who, at best, looks the other way when senior execs on a Korean business trip go on team outings to brothels. Tyler is the least sympathetic of the play’s three central characters, so his attempts to retain control of the company are less interesting than the plight of the developers multiple rungs below him on the corporate ladder. It is telling, though, that his downfall comes not because of the way the employees (or in the case of drivers, contractors who have to go to court for the right to be considered employees) are treated, but because the culture at the top becomes too visible to be condoned any further.
At the opposite end, Mia’s tale of life as a driver is full of incident and anecdote. From having to deal with unruly, often drunk, passengers to the shrinking margins that mean a full day’s work could often net drivers less than £10 worth of profit, the aspect of her story that relates directly to life in the company’s clutches is both well observed and interesting.
Alongside that, a subplot about Mia’s recovery from addiction to drink and drugs, and the baby she had to give up for adoption, feels out of place. A play devoted solely to Mia would have the room to explore both sides of her life: here, having only a third of the play’s running time, neither are explored adequately. Nor does Mia’s story and the experiences of her fellow drivers ever feel connected to the other two strands: As CEO, Tyler may not want to know what effect his policies have on the drivers, but it would be nice for Brilliant Jerks to show some concern.
All performers do a good job of crafting three central figures that fit within their own context, and populate each other’s storylines with supporting characters that have their own distinctive personalities. Ultimately, though, the whole work suffers by stuffing three stories into the running time that would be better devoted to one.
Continues until 25 March 2023
The Reviews Hub Score
Uber-stuffed
