Windfall ★★★★
Southwark Playhouse Borough
Windfall is a jack-in-the-box of a comedy, but in the first half, you don’t know it. It unwinds in an amusing but restrained way with glimpses of something more compelling beneath the surface, then in the second half, it leaps out at you. A manic, blade-wielding clown from a horror movie. It is worth the wait.
Written by Scooter Pietsch, WIndall is set in an office that captures the hell of mundane clerical work before the civilizing influence of modern HR practices. The boss Glenn (Jack Bennett) is a bullying petty dictator, lording it over five office workers who need the paycheck more than their dignity. The five drink together after work, bitch about their circumstances, and share way more details of their private lives than is necessary to get their jobs done. One of them, Galvan (Gabriel Paul) has a history of prophetic visions and when he foresees them winning the lottery they club together and spend way more than they can afford on piles of lottery tickets. The first act closes with the announcement that, indeed, the winning ticket has been sold from the place they got their tickets.
After the winning ticket is announced chaos breaks loose. Where is the ticket? Who has it? Has someone taken it for theirs and ditched the rest of them? The worst of human nature is spewed on stage. Along with the bitterest bile it quickly becomes evident, there will be blood.
Southwark Playhouse Borough is a small theatre and the limited setting plays right up to the audience’s knees reinforcing a claustrophobic intensity but also reminding the audience of single-set sitcoms. Parallel to the grotesque comedy the sense of a morality play hidden in the horror elevates it from dark farce to a tragedy of human vice. But its real oomph comes when the second act turns it up to eleven with the desperate cast using ordinary office equipment as instruments of gleeful torture. It’s crazy, horrible, and hilarious.
While the first act may seem underwhelming the seeds are well-sown. Glimpses of mania from Glenn the Boss and from the bible quoting Galvan are suggestive of what is to come. When eventually the clown leaps out of the box it all comes together superbly. A laugh riot of blood and humanity’s basest natures. After all, what wouldn’t you do for 500 million dollars?
Review by ANDREW HEBDENQueerguru Contributing Editor ANDREW HEBDEN is a MEDIA & CULTURAL STUDIES graduate spending his career between London, Beijing, and NYC as an expert in media and social trends. As part of the expanding minimalist FIRE movement, he recently returned to the UK and lives in Soho. He devotes as much time as possible to the movies, theatre, and the gym. His favorite thing is to try something (anything) new every day.
Labels: 2023, Andrew Hebden, Gabriel Paul, Jack Bennett, London, review, Scooter Pietsch, Southwark Playhouse, Windfall
