Bull
(2016)
by Mike Barlett
direction and set design: Fabio Cherstich
translation: Jacopo Gassmann
dramaturg: Vincenzo Latronico
with Linda Gennari, Pietro Micci, Andrea Narsi, Alessandro Quattro
Production: Teatro Franco Parenti di Milano
BULL is a ruthless and politically incorrect comedy, an ambiguous play of evil built like a mousetrap, a quicksand slough. Bull is a catalogue of works of evil. Tony, Isoble and Thomas: three employees waiting for their boss, Carter, who will decide who will get fired. The first two will stop at nothing to avoid dismissal and everything would lead to believe that the quintessential loser, chubby, shy, insecure, pressed by the two-rival alliance will be wiped out. With surgical precision Isobel and Tony try different rounds, using power, efficiency, strategic skills, alliance to abash the chosen sacrificial victim, the black sheep: Thomas. In the struggle for survival no blow is too hard. Isobel and Tony with ruthless but decisively sexy methods, try to drag Thomas to his failure, to make him yield like a bull in an arena, a slaughterhouse- pièce. BULL takes us back to our childhood, to when we watched the clumsy kid beaten by bullies: a feeling of compassion mixed with violent irony. To use the words of my friend and painter Emanuele Mocarelli: evil works really well – but it’s still murder.