Love as an end-of-world film
A familiar story of a man who fears getting hurt, so can’t commit, though in his fantasy life he’s an all-action hero
funny pastiche of the generic action films Toby loves, as he attempts to prevent a comet from hitting earth, and a more naturalistic love story following his struggles to develop a relationship with a defiantly untrained dancer called Forest Green.
It’s a piece that takes the familiar story of a man who fears getting hurt, so can’t commit to a kooky woman who has no such issues (“I was a mess, she was a rock star”) and blasts it into more outlandish territory, to highlight the pressures a sensitive chap faces to ‘man up’ in a world where the fantasy conceals insecurity.
As the comet gets ever closer to earth, a pre-packaged ‘happy ending’ that offers a snappy metaphor for love via the cosmos is side-stepped in favour of something more down to earth. Toby might not ‘get the girl and save the day’, but the play’s conclusion suggests relationships can’t be the ‘ultimate adventure’ when one of the people involved is on a mission to sabotage the journey.
Until 25 August. Today 1:45pm emerges, as he starts to question the wisdom of the Protestant work ethic, the moral flexibility of capitalism and the dream of pursuing your vocation.
Hosting ghost tours, flogging spoilt rich kids drones and pursuing alumni for charitable donations for his private school have all insidiously, prematurely corroded his soul.
Yet he’s an astute enough observer to have prised the noteworthy ridiculousness out of them before he quit or was sacked.
The rise of automation makes the future of work pertinent to everyone, which he essentially glosses over, capably raising instead the grim spectre of personal debt by involving everyone in the room. Consistently funny and deceptively thoughtful.
Until 25 August. Today 8pm