If life is nasty, brutish and short, much the same can be said about an extraordinary play at London’s Young Vic.The Olivier Award-winning “Bull” is back. The Mike Bartlett work starts off with innocent playground-style teasing in the workplace, then escalates into a brutal piece, with the boss Carter facing the tough decision on who to fire.He is played by Nigel Lindsay, whose previous roles range from the title character in “Shrek the Musical” to Barry in the award-winning movie “Four Lions.”Lindsay was involved in “Bull” from an early reading a couple of years ago, with the sane director, Clare Lizzimore. Lindsay was not able to join the cast when it was put on at the Sheffield Crucible and Young Vic on its first run – to his regret, because he loves all of Bartlett’s genre-crossing work, which includes the BBC’s “Doctor Foster” and “King Charles III.” After seeing a performance of the latter in New York, Lindsay met Bartlett at an after-show party and jumped at the offered chance of being in “Bull” at last.“Bull is short for bullfight,” he says. “It is about two people goading a third into final submission, very much like bullfighters attack a bull. It is short for bullying is well.” There is little time for shooting the bull in the play, which is an hour-long, short sharp shock course in the Darwinian survival of the fittest.It cleverly lures the audience in at the start with laugh-out-loud moments. But this humor, the ubiquitous lilac corporate carpet and watercooler are misleading. This not BBC’’s “The Office” or some sleepy paper company in Slough, says Lindsay: “These people are in what looks like it must be a very high powered, pressurized industry, maybe management consultancy or something like that.“It is a world in which Donald Trump would be able to exist with great success. You can form your own opinion on that! I used to work in the City years ago [Lindsay was a stockbroker before starting his acting career] and there are elements of this play that remind me of that place.”Lindsay is careful to give a human edge to the steely boss character. “He’s just the one who has to make the decision. The three people in that room know that one of them is going to be fired. That’s just office politics and how the business has to survive. So he’s not inherently nasty, he just has to make a decision based upon the three people in that room. I think he has risen to the top because he has qualities that make him hard when he wants to be.”The 300 audience packed into the Young Vic’s Maria studio are within touching distance of the actors. They lean on the bars of the stage which is a sort of boxing ring and can see the reactions of others opposite them. “Some are really horrified. Some laugh all the way through, they think it is hysterical. The audience doesn’t always realize they are very much a part of performance and here they are integral.“I played Shrek at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, a proscenium arch theater and you come out and 3,000 people are looking at you and you can’t see them. I find that more intimidating.”Lindsay pays tribute to the Young Vic and cast members Max Bennett, Susannah Fielding and Marc Wootton. He says he’s in the fortunate position of being able to pick and choose job offers. “I don’t necessarily have to do something because it’s a big part in a huge venue. After 25 years in the theater, I can do pieces that interest me.” He is combining this with doing a seven-part series for ITV.Of course this is the Christmas season of feel-good shows – “Kinky Boots,” musicals, pantomimes, and magic shows.There are a few other very serious-themed productions on the London stage, such as Pinter’s “The Homecoming” and Caryl Churchill’s play about death and aging, “Here We Go.” Now we have this show about malicious firings.Lindsay is delighted and notes: “It’s always good to have an alternative… and there are plenty of Grinches out there, so why don’t they come and see this?”“Bull” runs through January 16 2016, including a Christmas Eve performance at 3pm. Young Vic Theatre, 66 The Cut, London SE1 8LZ
↧