iTunes Exclusive Episode Bull

The following is a sooner orgator production.
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iTunes exclusive number 83.
My name is Rob.
I am the executive producer and ringmaster of this circus.
But I am not by myself.
Joining me across the desk is he tends to do.
Is a man who never really got into the show the office.
And nobody knows why.
He is Chad.
Welcome to the show.
I was so late coming to that party.
It just didn't seem to make sense.
You've got to talk about him.
You've got to watch the whole thing now.
This is after a week to week.
But you also have to run around Mary to a Brit.
And she's got a bias.
So what the lovely intelligence is Irvin had a bias too because she loved the original.
And she got really got into the American version too.
Okay.
Also joining me at right straight across somewhere.
I am the official fact checker of this show.
And a man who got some headphones for Christmas.
But he can't use him.
You may know him as fond Don Go but his mom and name him Don Ford.
I'm going to call him Don Ford.
I'm doing a woolly bully right now.
And that is very unfortunate.
It's suffering from rhythm deficiency syndrome.
Whatever we do one of these iTunes exclusives.
It is to review something.
And this edition is no exception to that rule.
Today we are reviewing a one act stage production called Bull.
Written by UK resident Mike Bartlett.
Playing as part of the elevator series at the Wiley Theatre in Dallas until March the 14th.
This is a four person cast directed by Christine Vila.
Basically three employees are in a conference room getting ready to meet with their boss.
They are sales team.
And they've heard rumors that the company is downsizing and at least one of them is going to be fired.
You have Thomas who's been with a company a long time.
Kind of a timid guy tries to take the high road as often as he can.
You have Isabel.
Who is fairly new to the company.
You don't quite understand who she is at first.
But once the thing gets going you know where it's going.
And then you have Tony.
Tony is the defacto team lead.
He hasn't been with the company very long either.
But he's he appears to be a child of privilege.
Kind of the flat boy tightness.
What happens for the next hour of your life is.
Gritty.
It's real.
Some will see it as office politics.
Others will see it as just adult bullying.
And the longer it goes the worse it gets.
So let's start talking about the story itself because that's how we usually start this thing.
And chat I'm going to start with you.
Before we do we got to thank Kelsey guy.
We got to thank the Wiley Theatre.
The Dallas Theatre Center.
Faking them for having us come to this thing.
It's a great experience.
And not only thank you for letting us come to this Kelsey.
But thank you for working with us a little bit.
Yeah.
Because original shot to see this was when the weather got really bad.
And we couldn't really get there.
And she was so accommodating.
To say no guys we can work around this.
There's plenty of performances will work you into another one.
So thank you so much for that Kelsey.
Thank you Kelsey.
But chat back on the road.
What did you think of the story itself?
Well, I've done a little a little homework on the author of this play.
The play right as it were.
He's responsible for the town.
Oh, with with the F-let.
It's in 2012 he premiered the crime drama the town starring Andrew Scott and Martin Climbe.
I'll bet that's what that movie is based on because Hollywood's been doing a lot of that.
And he was nominated for a BAFTA for a best breakthrough talent in the TV category in 2013.
Okay.
So guys got skins.
Yes, he's got skins.
He's actually adapted to chariots of fire for the stage.
He's got a lot of skins on the wall.
And he also happens to share a birthday with me.
But the subject matter here is something that it kind of surprises me that we've never seen.
I've never seen it.
The the whole class warfare struggle on such a microscopic scale.
I've never seen anything quite like this.
Very well put sir.
You've you've seen it in where it's the halves and the have not seen the in the doggy dog world of everyday business.
But this is something entirely different.
It's it's it's hard to watch.
It's really hard to watch and I'm not saying that in a negative context as far as
performance wise or anything to do with the production itself.
It's because there's not a single person listening to this podcast not a single person is in this room.
That hasn't either gone through this first hand or known somebody that has.
On any level indeed.
I mean, it's it's happened at work.
It's happened at school.
It's happened in the school yard.
It happened on your street growing up.
It happened in a bar.
Somebody just went out of their way to make you feel like you were less of a human being than you are.
And this whole thing was just a character study and dehumanization.
Just stripping somebody down and breaking them down to their core.
All right.
And then keep going and eat an extra mile just for good measure just because they can.
All right, done.
On our written review on the clubhouse podcast.com.
That's our website.
I put on air.
I am so conflicted on this review.
This one is so tough.
I under I could see why they did something like this.
And we'll get an acting a little bit.
But after about five to ten minutes and I realized what was really going on with this play.
I called it basically verbal bullying and verbal torture.
Yeah.
You did.
I can't debate you on that.
I've been looking over you and saw your eyes were getting red.
I'm like this is really messing with it.
Because it was hurting.
It was hitting me where I lived.
Yeah.
I could tell it was a little awkward.
I could see why they would possibly write something like this.
Because it happens.
Yeah.
It does happen.
But this was taking it to the extremes.
Basically, I call the storyline.
Basically verbal torture is what this thing was.
And not only is it like this real world style.
It's especially in the world of sales.
Because this is a sales team.
Yeah.
It is one of the most cut throat competitive styles of business.
They cut from shut up.
You at least once.
Yeah.
But you're going overboard even with the booze.
And I'm just going to say it's just the alcohol part and the chess part.
That was taking it to the extreme.
For me.
I'm glad I read a little bit about this going in.
Because had I gone into this cold.
This might be a completely different conversation.
On a certain level, I was kind of prepared for what I was about to see.
But nothing can fully prepare you for the absolute brutal honesty that this production brings.
And I'm a lot like you don't.
I was very conflicted when I was writing my review on.
Because it's very intense.
It's very intense.
And we're going to get to why there's conflicts conflict there.
English.
I believe it is.
We're going to talk about that here in a minute.
But in order to pull a script off like this,
you can't just pull somebody off the street.
You have to have a very special caliber of actor to pull off these parts.
And I really felt that the casting here was phenomenal.
Let us make sure that we make no bones about this.
Any discomfort we have with these reviews does not come from the actors themselves.
Not at all.
These four people brought it.
Like I put on my review.
That's why I'm so conflicted because the acting was so incredible.
I was blown away by the acting.
Ian Ferguson playing Thomas.
Alex Ross playing Tony.
Jeremy Schwartz playing Mr. Carter.
Natalie Young playing Isabel.
It's.
There's such powerful performances.
That it's hard.
It's hard to really review this film because I love the performances so much.
But the story itself was so in your face that it just like they made me angry.
Yeah, and I told Chad on the drive home.
I found myself balling up my fists at a couple of points.
Because the performances were that good in material.
That's very, very hard to pull off.
Done.
Isabel.
It reminds me of Sherry Palmer from 24.
Oh, yeah.
Very nice.
Tony plays the privy rich guy.
Played by Alex Ross who did incredible playing just the the arrogant guy who you just want to hit.
And Thomas played the bully victim to a T who is played by Ian Ferguson.
Incredible job on that.
Jeremy Schwartz played the boss who just doesn't want to hear Mr. one personer.
I have all the prestige in the world.
And just doesn't really look into the situation.
I just have my own opinions about everything.
So I said the acting was incredible.
Chad.
I kind of wish that the only the only thing negative I could say about this.
And it was only because it was the way the play was written.
Was.
And not necessarily the screenwriting job.
Right.
Right.
Right.
I really wanted more about Carter.
We didn't get to see enough of Carter.
I disagree there because for me Carter was just more of a.
Device to keep it moving.
That it was about the other three, but he's just kind of that piece that keeps the plot moving.
Yeah.
I mean, but you know, given that it was only four characters in a one act play.
And and considering that so much of it centered around.
His call.
His decision.
And I wanted to know a little bit more about this guy.
But I guess maybe that would have been doing it to service to.
The face of the three involved.
I kind of disagree because Carter's character in real life is really like that.
He just goes there doesn't meeting.
I got stuff to do.
Let's get to a bubble.
In some cases.
Yeah.
Not every boss.
But it's not every boss, but that style is just.
That style of boss, which I've seen before, which I've had bosses like that before.
We all have.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Just the meat and potatoes.
Let's get it.
Boom.
Boom.
See you later.
And so I could see that point of him being in for that amount of time.
I thought his time amount of time in that film.
I really would like to maybe take some time and sit down with a director here.
And just really pick her brain and say,
What got you to get these people to where they are?
Kristy Villager did an amazing job getting your her actors to where they needed to be.
Cherry Palmer, I call her.
Yeah.
No, Kristy.
This is the director.
Sorry.
Sorry.
I'm sorry.
And one thing.
I don't think I said a chat in the car in the way home was.
I wonder if they just all have a group hug like right after every performance.
Because just to get, you know, we have to get out of this thing.
One of the things that one of my favorite things that I've heard in the last few years is Kevin Smith doing an interview
where he talked about Michael Parks and Red State.
And as they were getting close to the end of the production, Michael Parks said,
I love you, but I'm glad we're almost done because I've got to get this guy out of my head.
I like to think that these actors go through that same bit.
Or they finished this show, they go backstage before they come out for their bow.
And they just hug each other like, dude, it's cool, you know.
Because the characters are so vicious and just animals for lack of a better term.
That you've almost got to just take some time and decompress after this thing.
And I needed to decompress after this thing and I wasn't even in it.
I wanted to shot a scotch and I don't even drink scotch.
Right?
I was starting to think maybe that thing was real.
That's the piece offering me.
I mean, it's hard to give standout performances because there's only four people.
But if I've got to pick one of these four that I felt stood above the other three,
it's going to be Natalie Young.
Because you see, I reference her heel turn if you're going to use a wrestling term.
Because when you first meet or you're not quite sure what's going on,
because there's no, when you walk in the feet or they're playing nothing but British punk for 10 minutes,
which already gets you just angry as it is, because that's what punk does.
But like the first four minutes of the production, nobody says a word.
It's just Tom is sitting there going over there.
And then she comes in and they're kind of looking at each other.
And you're like, is this a playful thing?
Are they, are they just kind of ribbon at each other?
And to see her just turn into this evil witch.
It reminded me a lot of Katherine Zeta Jones in traffic.
How, because I've always said that's one of the best character evolutions I've ever seen on film,
where it just, you see this transformation.
Now Katherine Zeta Jones had two and a half hours.
Natalie Young had about 45 minutes.
I called her Sherry Palmer because she fed it to the day.
She, she turned it on the dime when she had to, and she knew exactly.
She was able to turn that emotion on and off so quickly and so well with the transition.
I really felt that she was the strongest, the four already strong performances.
Not to take anything away from the other three.
But I think if you had, if you maybe have to pick one that stood out, it would be her done.
I would have to go with Thomas.
Because he played that role first.
Yeah, he, he did that perfectly.
And he just saw, it's like, he starts getting mad.
He says, knock it off, knock it off to the point where now he's just coward and he's broken.
That's what I saw to him.
And he played that part of it.
I can't take this anymore.
And he starts pleading for them to stop.
And it still doesn't stop to the, finally, boom.
Till the end.
Chad.
It's, it's, again, it's a tough call, but I think we've all gone three completely different directions here.
Because the person I wanted to kill was, I wanted to kill him.
I, I wrote him in, in the written review that, and where's that at?
It's on our website.
It's on our website.
Do you give the address, and then we say that, sir.
I know that's that's your bit.
You got to say it.
But I'm thrown with that bill.
I'm not talking to you.
I don't care.
I don't care.
I don't care.
I don't care.
I don't care.
I was, I was, have expecting somebody to jump over the railing and start pummeling this guy in the crowd.
Get it.
Dog those in hand.
You want to beat the live and full out of this guy.
Because you know, it's, it's, we, again, we've all met with, we, we went to school with somebody like this.
Or, we had to work with somebody like this.
We've had to deal with them on some level, to where,
your job may be peachy keen but that's the one thing about it you can't stand is that one guy
that just seems to get away with everything and you couldn't get away with taking a pack of
a sugar out of the break room but this guy can get away with embezzling funds from the
corporate slush whatever and being spoiler free there's a point where I'm saying that the
chest scene uh if that would've been me in real life and they would took my hand I would give them
a Frenchy any one be by Frenchy I mean I would just gave him a Frenchy give her a wig flare yeah
let's be clear we were referring to the big show when it chokes slam okay no no I'm talking
about the shhh Frenchy oh the slab okay yeah she has a little more specific on that uh but the bottom
line here to me and it was something that I really had to wrap my brain around the further I got away
from this thing art of any form is meant to cause conversation uh huh and you know what we've been
talking about it for 18 minutes it was it was a non stop conversation at the car coming home
and it you know I really wish you had been there done because I knew you we all needed to get it out
of our system yeah so I waited a little bit to do my written review which is so that you
club us podcast calm that's our website thank you it's and the weird part of it is and we'll
work this into the final analysis because the way we do the final analysis on this show we don't
give you letter grades thumbs up thumbs down we don't give you numbers stars our audience the
empire is better than that the way we do this thing is a two-prong question question number one
is would you see this again the answer is no then we're done here if the answer is yes
your your options on how you would see it again are a little limited given the fact that there's
two rows of that you're from more background but would how quickly would you want to go see it
chat will start with you would you see this again I couldn't and see and that's the distinction
there's a difference between I won't and I can't yeah and this is the first time we've ever
had this happen on this show right where up until now the last 82 of these that we've done
it's been a very cotton dry I will see this again I won't see this again and let me go ahead
and just jump to this thing because I think all three of us have the same opinion it's not that we
won't watch this again it's that we can't watch this again because there's so much raw emotion
there's so much involved in this thing that I don't know that my heart could handle sitting
through this again but not taking away from the performances not taking away from the direction all
of which were top notch if I were a casting director I would hire any of these cats tomorrow
but this this production if you have any form of a weak constitution for people being treated
badly don't see this that's in a nutshell I mean but if you are a fan if you can handle the subject
matter I would tell you to go see this playing currently playing at the wildly theater through
March 14th but if you can handle the subject matter I would highly recommend this particular production
can I add on it please do this is probably one of the few times I've ever said this okay
no I would not and it's not that I can handle this because I've seen some really bad stuff in my past
course just I wouldn't want to yeah I won't see it yet you can't like I wouldn't want to but
I could see it if I needed to and that's that's a little bit of a difference there I could I could
hack it again if I needed to but here's I I just it's a one something I wouldn't want to watch again
that's the main question if for some reason I was stuck at saying you have to see this I can handle
it again but I'd have to go in that mindset of when I saw that stuff in my past jobs but
I will not recommend this thing unless you like someone being fit you can handle the subject matter
then yes because the performances were so strong the direction was so strong the set is very
minimally so you can't really talk visually about it but they did find on it yeah if you cannot handle
this kind of material on any the way I put it was take the breakfast club take the office
and take Glenn Gary Glenn Ross and put it in a blender and that's what this is well yeah I even put
this on my my written review on that about the movie boy you did you talked about that of it yes I did
because I said that's a movie I watch over and over again even though it discusses this stuff in
everything right because it's so important it's hard to watch without it is so hard to watch
great and without spoiling anything you're talking about two completely different endings
you know I mean oh no because some of those are real right so what I'm saying is yeah it's
it's just so intense that again if you can handle this kind of material we all three would
highly recommend this to you but at this kind of material makes you uncomfortable if it upsets you
we're gonna tell you you might want to do yourself a favor and hit red box on the way home
and get a pint of hogondoss because it's an air supply on in the car this material is so in
your face and it's written intentionally that way and my other thing was they all used British
accents which my first thought was they really didn't have to do that but the more I thought of it
that British accent to an American audience gives that air of upper class and I think that just
made your hatred for those characters that much more in the talking in the tones and what they said
exactly you know Alex it was like Mr. he used the you know the more formal language
versus what you know Thomas character Ian was more of the downer gritty or buccolor talking
I would encourage the playwright to get with a TV producer God knows he's got the connections
and film this thing and encourage it to be shown at seminars for sensitivity training
of what not to do in the workplace that's a fair point again thank you to Kelsey Guy for giving us this
opportunity to see this the wildly theater delcator beautiful yeah gorgeous facility the way they
designed the wire I didn't even know there was that theater and there so what's there but thank you again
Kelsey for giving us this opportunity kudos go to everybody involved in this thing phenomenal job
if you got us talking about it this and tentally for this long gentlemen let's do the plugs
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pretty Palmer would have made the material a little bit easier deal with I'm just saying
the preceding was a sooner orgator production why because I have to