Melissa Bubnic’s play, jointly presented by the Bush theatre and Headlong at a west London music venue, is a rude, raucous, song-filled satire that aims some well-directed blows at the macho swagger and sexual brutality of the male-dominated City of London. But, while it hits its chosen target, it never, unlike Caryl Churchill’s Serious Money and Top Girls, goes on to question the capitalist ethos and ask whether you can have feminism without socialism.
Bubnic’s anti-hero, Astrid, is a big broker who has risen to the top by playing the boys’ game while exploiting her femininity. The plot hinges on her desire to pass on her success recipe to a Bangladeshi junior who, in a device reminiscent of the Mike Nichols movie Working Girl, learns it all too well. The old idea that it’s lonely at the top is reinforced by Astrid’s need to buy the time, and company, of a classy female sex worker.
Amy Hodge’s production is not helped by the venue’s dodgy acoustics but it is played with great brio by an all-woman cast. Kirsty Bushell, last seen as Hedda Gabler, plays Astrid with terrific verve and moodily sings, often sprawling atop a piano, a number of classic songs by Peggy Lee, Nina Simone and Rosemary Clooney. She is vigorously supported by Chipo Chung as her paid-for consort, Ellora Torchia as her ambitious protege and Helen Schlesinger as a sadistic senior manager. The show undoubtedly exposes the cruel dilemmas faced by women in the City: what it never questions is whether this is merely the symptom of a systemic malaise.
- At Bush Hall, London, until 30 July. Box office: 020-8743 5050.
