Words: Rosie Hall
Image: Ella Carmen-Dale

4 stars

Ben Weaver is waiting outside an office building where he is soon due to be interviewed for a job. He has a new suit and an almond croissant. So far, so good: that is, until he is witness to a mysterious man falling from the sky and exploding on the ground. For reasons unknown to him, Ben reaches over the remains of the man, and steals his lanyard.

And so Ben Weaver turns into Ben Manager, a promising young businessman quickly ascending the ranks at the Monolith. What does the company itself do, I hear you ask? No matter! Don’t ask! Ben Manager is here for business. He’s here to gain traction, he’s here to socialise information, he’s here to circle back and create synergy and make the best PowerPoints of his goddamn life. 

What begins as a witty and nostalgic corporate satire slowly warps and mutates as the audience is plunged, along with Ben, into a Kafkaesque nightmare hellscape. The sound and stage design are integrated absolutely seamlessly: the sound design is incorporated behind two retro desks, set up at each side of the stage, and musical accompaniments and monstrous voice effects are performed here live. The set up is innovative and very stylish.

The existential, absurd meaninglessness at the very core of the play, though thematically key to the piece, also hinders it slightly. The scenes don’t quite feel entirely tied together cohesively and so the turn into surreal horror in the latter third is an extreme tonal shift that the audience doesn’t quite feel prepared for. However, this is tied together nicely with a neat and narratively satisfying ending. A slick, intelligent, and impressive show for anyone whose emails do not, in fact, find them well.

The Unstoppable Rise of Ben Manager
Pleasance Courtyard Above
17.20
30th Jul – 25th Aug