The Unstoppable Rise Of Ben Manager is simultaneously the most surreal and the most cuttingly perceptive show you are likely to see this Fringe. It calls itself “a dark comedy about modern work and the world of bullsh*t jobs” and follows the adventures of Ben Weaver, played by Jack Parris who also writes. This journey starts with him attending a job interview at the scarily titled Monolith Industries but on the way he witnesses a death, which he views with morbid curiosity – then he notices that the man’s lanyard is lying on the ground next to him and picks it up, and almost without thinking, puts it around his neck, and with extraordinary physicality he begins to transform into this man. At his interview, noticing the lanyard, he is asked whether he is an internal candidate, and in which case he can be fast tracked – the name on the card is Ben Manager, and that is who he becomes.
The story of the man who rises rapidly through the ranks of a huge organisation even though he actually doesn’t do any work is something that everyone who has ever worked in a large organisation can relate to. He creates the most bizarre and bonkers presentations shown on screen showing a graph line rising and rising without any explanation or substance and talks using long words and masses of acronyms such as KPIs and SMART targets, and phrases such as “gaining traction”, “strategic importance”, “pushing the envelope” and “let’s circle back to that point”. All his sentences sound impressive yet when you really look at them, they are just management bingo speak and are utterly meaningless. It’s interesting that at the beginning he tries to humbly speak up saying that he doesn’t know what he’s doing, but rapidly gets sucked into the world of the seemingly never ending promotions for just talking rubbish. Jack Parris performs with impassioned conviction throughout, the audience feels his every emotion as his ascension through the ranks of the creepy organisation leads to its inevitable conclusion.
The staging is unusual, with two desks either side of this almost one man show, with the men behind the desks: Mike Coxhead and Adam Boothroyd, providing all the sound effects, music and beats; and most of the other voices through a voice changing microphone. Although they are fully on stage, they behave very much as if they are unseen, while the remaining performer: Paulina Krzeczkowska – who cryptically hands out lanyards to every audience member on entry, plays the CEO and moves a faceless suited puppet the size of a toddler, who is Ben’s colleague called Derp, throughout. The play’s narrative does switch into completely surreal at points, but also draws out some really interesting questions: what would you do if you could do absolutely anything? Perhaps on purpose and perhaps accidentally it also starts to address what happens to you if you stop using your brain: when all you do is read the same children’s book over and over again, how long before you go insane – a question that most if not all new parents and mums alone with their babies ask of themselves. The staging could be seen as new and modern and different and challenging, or it could be seen as echoes of teenage geeks getting together and putting together things in their bedrooms. The fact that this is so well thought out that the lanyards each audience member is given has a QR code which takes you to an exit interview via a Google form, which the company assures us will be “filed under Important”, would imply the former rather than the latter is true. A really interesting and unusual show, as different and as well constructed and acted as you are likely to find this Fringe.
The Rotunda (Squeak), 9 May 2024
The Unstoppable Rise Of Ben Manager 9 10 29 31 May
