There are times when imagined theatre storylines struggle, through no fault of their own, to compete with the madness, if I may call it that, of the real world. Although the ‘emergency alert’ recently sent by the Government to mobile phones about wildfire risks didn’t reach anyone at the Edinburgh Fringe, it still made the news in Scotland. The inclusion of the alert service in this show, in a story that tells everyone to stay indoors until further notice because there really was an immediate danger to life, was timely, so to speak, while the story’s conclusion, deliberately written for comic purposes, was grounded in reality. Yet more evidence, not that anyone needed it, that Fringe writers are in tune with the world as it is far more than parliamentarians. Not that this says much, in itself, for Fringe writers…
Tobias (Henry Calcutt) shows up at a television production company’s office (that, interestingly, doesn’t have a television on the premises, because everyone there watches content on mobile devices) and finds that it is really a small cog in a very large capitalist corporation whose primary purpose is the maximisation of profit margins, consequences be damned. Angie (James Coward), as ‘Angus’ likes to go by, is one of those high-octane energy American company executives, who moved to London at the instruction of his superiors and is now running UK operations. Bruiser (Molly Windust) is his assistant, not entirely unlike Emily Charlton in The Devil Wears Prada, and completing the set of on-stage characters is intern Isabella (Rheana Kamalu), who, true to the stereotype of her generation, seems to be surgically attached to her technological devices, the sort of person who wouldn’t even want to spend a sunny afternoon at the beach if the 5G signal wasn’t good enough.
The show ultimately covers well-trodden ground, at least by Edinburgh Fringe standards, where big business is portrayed as inherently evil and the Government is simply incompetent. Is that ‘funny’ or just true? The script could do with some tightening – some of the subplots provide some context to the characters but do little to advance the story. Evidently, there are Tobiases everywhere, who do what they must do to pay the bills. I’ve thought for some time that the likes of Netflix started with oodles of creativity, but over time have become vehicles for churning out whatever their market research concludes their audiences apparently want. This production takes the same view. There aren’t any easy solutions to the problems the show presents. Although grounded in reality, this could have been a pacier and sharper show.
Review by Chris Omaweng
A TV production company gets word from Whitehall that they must adapt their programming to align with the Government’s new policy to rapidly prepare the country for war. In a panic, the producers offer hot-shot writer Tobias an exorbitant amount of money to create a ‘pro-weapons sitcom’. Under pressure to deliver, Tobias is forced to choose between his morals and his mortgage. What starts as a satire about our governments’ relationships with the media descends into a locked room thriller when an emergency alert places the characters in immediate danger.
James Coward – Angie
Molly Windust – Bruiser
Rheana Kamalu – Isabelle
Henry Calcutt – Tobias
Written and directed by Dan Bishop
TARGET AUDIENCE
Pleasance Courtyard at the Edinburgh Fringe
5 to 30 August 2026
