London Zoo

Southwark Playhouse, 29/03/24

Credit: Lidia Crisafulli

Final rating: ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

This was a piece of fringe theatre taking place at a venue that has in the past born some very successful productions. And I had high hopes. Some rave reviews about how a small news company was being taken over by a media mogul, and the interplay between the relationships of those involved in the takeover. However, I was unfortunately, left bitterly disappointed.

Upon walking in to the intimate studio at Borough, the staging was remarkably bare. A table, desk, some newspapers and a cafetière – nothing more. Simple is sometimes effective – and often works well for something with a tiny budget, if it is disguised. But not here. And then, the moment Harris Vaughan began his opening speech as the sleazy investment director, I knew there was trouble afoot. His performance was lacklustre and forced. It set the pace off to a bad start with a few line falters, and didn’t allow his supporting actors to thrive.

Though the story eventually bled through the slightly awkward dialogue, there wasn’t a single ounce of character development to be had from start to finish for all but one of the cast. That exception is Natalie Lauren, who gave the only really convincing performance as the ‘token’ woman on the company board. Themes of sexism and prejudice were ingrained, with a cheap throwaway line at the start to tell the audience the action was taking place in the 1990s. And there was an occasional joke with hindsight about how ‘Emojis would never catch on’. But it was anything from a comedy. Scenes were uncomfortable to watch at times given the stunted acting performances, culminating in the use of the ‘N’ word by the boss of the news startup company when discussing racism in the workplace. Nothing felt particularly convincing or relevant to a news environment (I say this as someone who works in the industry), and the dialogue could’ve applied to any vague industry – rather than being specific to the media as was constantly repeated to the audience.

Simon Furness was watchable by the second act, though the story barely moved anything on at all. And the biggest flaw with the script is the ending – where out of nowhere, Arabella (Natalie Lauren) stabs the hapless accountant – something that happens literally minutes before the end of the play. There is then a clichè bit of framing – ‘now your fingerprints are on the knife’ – before a blackout and blows.

It was all very disjointed with a story that was sometimes unbelievable but at worst ridiculous. The one positive takeaway was the use of rope lighting – strung against the back wall – to indicate an elevator during scene transitions. But honestly, that is the only thing I found myself enjoying about the show, which was very disappointing.

A problematic script and weak cast, not something I could recommend.