People are fighting for their jobs. Life is tough. There’s bullying and redundancy in the market place. Bull, the 55-minute one-act play at the Young Vic, is by Mike Bartlett, author of King Charles III, which has just won the Critics Circle Award for Best Play. There are three candidates for two jobs. Tony and Isobel gang up on Thomas to make certain he is the one who is going to be made redundant.
Thomas (Sam Troughton), weak, flabby, unattractive, insecure and on the defensive, is a born loser. Thomas is the bull. Tony (Adam James) and Isobel (Eleanor Matsuura) are the matadors. They humiliate and torment him until they break him and bring him down. The acting is exemplary. I haven’t seen anything quite as nasty since Neil LaBute’s In the Company of Men.
Director Claire Lizzimore stages the production inside a boxing ring, with the audience sitting and standing on all four sides, which increases the nastiness. The devastating and water-drenched climax is an absolute knock-out.