Dumb Show

Synopsis

Joe Penhall’s black comedy tells the story of Barry, aka ‘Mr Saturday Night’ a TV comedian and presenter, who has never quite been able to grasp the celebrity lifestyle he so desperately craves. So when two corporate bankers lure him with the promise of serious money and the perks of fame, he greedily takes the bait. But celebrity comes at a price and Barry becomes the victim of a major tabloid sting.

Our Review:

27 June 2011

Joe Penhall’s Dumb Show, first played in the West End some seven years ago, still feels like it was written yesterday. It opens with two bankers buttering up a TV star to try and get him to open an account with them, a perfect snapshot of the celeb with the world at his feet. But the ‘bankers’ are in fact tabloid journalists, setting up a sex ‘n’ drugs sting, which they duly execute.

The breezy ‘Mr Saturday Night’ celeb is, of course, already falling apart, his career and marriage on the rocks. But Penhall’s play asks more of its audience than an easy sneer at both their houses. What do ‘the public’ have a right to ask of those in the public eye? And what about when persuasive arguments about public and private morality are put into the mouths of those who, simply, want to get the next sexy story as quickly as possible? Who uses whom? Both sides articulate powerful arguments...

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