Review: Rodney Black: Who Cares? It’s Working
A challenging piece of theatre full of the hallmarks of one of the best new emerging companies right now
Sadie Pearson is one of the most exciting new writers currently breaking into the theatre industry. Last year’s To Watch A Man Eat, was a hit in Bristol ahead of a run at the Edinburgh Festival.
This year, again through Full Frontal Theatre, we get Pearson’s brand new play Rodney Black: Who Cares? It’s Working. It played at the Bristol Improv Theatre for one night only after further development following a run at the Lion and the Unicorn Theatre in London at the end of last year.
Rodney Black is a comedian. He’s played by Ben Willows, who gives Laurence Fox energy. Black’s growing popularity comes from a place of notoriety rather than talent. He’s not that funny, leaning into provocation under the guise of “It’s just a joke” and “freedom of speech”.
His initial stand-up act is uncomfortable, causing nervous bouts of laughter from an audience likely unused to hearing such views live. This is Bristol though – a city of such strong social justice that it will drum up a protest by tea time and close the city centre if needs be.
Offstage, Rodney initially doesn’t seem so convinced by his content. He is conflicted between the quality of the material he is delivering yet knowing he could do better. He still prefers to write letters in response to fan mail despite his agent’s protestations that social media is where he should be – in everyone’s pockets on a phone.
Come the end of the show, Black’s media presence has shot into the stratosphere. Despite his meteoric rise to infamy, the number of fan letters he receives has really dwindled.
Rodney is feeling the pressure from his agent to push his material further and further into controversy. As he does so it’s lapped up by print media – an industry that desperately needs doom page turning to remain afloat. This fuels Black further down a path that will see him become consumed by his own monstrous celebrity persona.
Bertie Taylor-Smith plays Black’s manager with perfect awfulness, spinning on a dime to snap between humour and intensity in his performance. He uses Rodney as a cash cow, spotting opportunity and spin in tragedy and driving the manipulation of creativity as a money man interested in pound signs and web stats.
Middle aged theatre-goers will likely recognise the flavour of Black’s misogynistic humour with deep roots in the 70s and 80s. That from the likes of Jim Davidson, Roy Chubby Brown, Jethro and Bernard Manning. Rodney Black pushes even further – past Jimmy Carr, past Ricky Gervais – tapping into contemporary rage-bait, cancel-culture, snowflakes, incel ideology and social media consumption until he’s in full-flow Katie Hopkins territory. He’s that person everyone loves to hate.
Rodney Black: Who Cares? It’s Working, tells a story behind this. An extremely violent incident has been committed against a woman by a super-fan following one of Black’s extremely graphic routines.
The fall out and crisis management is told through the build up to an incident, the incident itself and the fall out Black goes through in the aftermath.
It does so through the three perspectives of Rodney Black, his manager and that of a woman who had come to see one of his shows.
Curtain Call at Rodney Black: Who Cares? It’s Working at the Bristol Improv Theatre
Pearson’s writing is cerebral, sharp and smart. It manages to tap into some of the darkest parts of the human psyche. The result of this is at times darkly comic but also gratuitous. Descriptions of violence is extreme and uncomfortable. The show opens with the description of a woman’s jaw being broken. But it is necessary and it challenges the audience throughout.
It shames us for our insatiable need to scroll through more and more Reels. Cute cat videos interspersed with beheadings. Algorithm sucking us into comments and arguments by rage bait.
At times, the language of violence used is practically Shakespearean in its description, particularly with Merida Beasley’s (Woman) poetic and hypnotic delivery.
The pacing of the three voices at contrast with each other feel layered like an aria. Hen Ryan’s judicious direction conducts these voices and keeps the tension strong as it moves between the three.
Full Frontal Theatre has only been going for around a year, but is building a body of work that is both gripping and challenging. As a company, the creatives have developed a strong brand identity with their style and voice. This creates a theatre company producing work that is unique and refreshing in its unflinching challenge.
Rodney Black: Who Cares? It’s Working is a great second outing from Full Frontal Theatre, who relish taking their audience and giving them a hard time with some fab theatre.
Cast and Creatives
Rodney Black – Ben Willows
Manager – Bertie Taylor-Smith
Woman – Merida Beasley
Writer – Sadie Pearson
Director – Hen Ryan
Sound Design – Ava Zarate
Lighting Design – Laura Hulme
Producer – Grace Shropshire
For more information about Full Frontal Theatre, visit: https://fullfrontaltheatre.com/
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