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An hour’s worth of irreverent fun ridiculing short-term ‘ableist’ attitudes and the lack of societal change.Summary
Rating
Excellent
OMG! The PR Agency ‘Rize’ has been accused of being ‘ableist’ so the big guns have been brought in to do something about it. Shall we embark upon a course of action involving fact finding, learning and improvement? No, of course not. Let’s make some money. Enter unscrupulous, blind talent manager Tim (Samuel Brewer) who has a cunning plan. He manipulates and uses blind influencer Ross (Aarian Mehrabani) to use his disability for some money-making schemes. So, posting on the theme of ‘being blind is cool, everyone should experience it’ the number of followers increases and sponsorship deals abound. Of course, there are always unintended consequences: the one described did jar a bit with the rest of the show, but perhaps that was the point.
The irreverent tone is set at the start when the cast introduce themselves and each other. There are continuous over the top apologies just in in case anybody is offended or excluded. Efforts to cater for different requirements end up with them going round in a loop, which proves an amusing way of showing that one person’s needs may well contradict another’s. There are captions and ‘Integrated Audio Description’ throughout that cover not only the action and the characters but also the vibe. Excellent stuff.
Writers Chloe Palmer, Brewer and Mehrabani also perform all of the parts, using stance, accent and mannerism to distinguish between characters. Palmer’s insipid HR lady is particularly enjoyable. A simple set sees a small table, a couple of chairs, and a large screen at the back for the captions, which could be argued for as being another cast member. The performance area is a quite brightly coloured mat edged with black and yellow hazard tape, and this is pointed out by staff on entry. Even so, someone still managed to trip over it. That’s not a criticism, it kind of reinforces the point regarding the difficulties of ensuring a fully accessible show for every individual.
This is a very funny and enjoyable production, poking fun at superficial, woke behaviour in relation to identity politics and tapping into anxiety about doing the right thing. The cast clearly state that this is all a joke and invented, before going on to give some real life examples. I am tempted to say you couldn’t make it up. As with all good comedy, there is a small grain of truth in it which lodges itself at the back of your brain.
Running at only an hour at the moment, the premise has the potential to be developed into something longer and I would quite like to see how that would pan out. And despite the bullying tactics warning any reviewers in the audience about giving anything less, it still gets four stars from me. I also admit to getting a sticker at the end, just to show I am no longer ‘ableist’.
Written by: Aarian Mehrabani, Chloe Palmer, Samuel Brewer, with Josh Roche
Directed by: Josh Roche
Produced by: Stephen Bailey for ASYLUM Arts and Flawbored
Design be: Cara Evans
Captioning and video by: Dan Light
It’s a Motherf***ing Pleasure plays at Soho Theatre until 13 May. Further information and bookings can be found here.
