Ovalhouse, London Audience participation turns from fun to fraught in this assault on the corporate world inspired by the American author’s short story

Terry works for a marketing company whose clients include Mr Kipling cakes. We are his focus group and he is throwing us questions. What colour is Mr Kipling? What are his hobbies? Where would he go on holiday?



Initially, the audience participation in this smart and increasingly disturbing show seems like a bit of fun, but it gradually becomes clear that there is a gap between what is said and what is heard, what is apparently revealed and what is really meant.

The fact that the audience is split into two groups facing each other across the auditorium, and that what is happening on the other side is often tantalisingly semi-audible, underlines the dislocating sense of a world of endless bright chatter and no genuine connection. The staging, with its shifting perspectives, constantly undercuts all certainties.

Then things start to turn quietly savage and increasingly surreal. Terry (Terry O’Donovan) is not all he seems. He yearns after Clare (Clare Dunn) and is upset that Stu (Stuart Barter) has been promoted above him. He goes home to microwaved meals, corrosive loneliness and internalised rage.

Toot’s show is inspired by David Foster Wallace’s story Mister Squishy, a narrative that only gradually reveals itself. This stylish, cleverly lit show is just as sneaky as it conjures a shallow but shiny world of corporate ping-pong and fake smiles that disguises the bleakness lurking beneath. Fondant fancies have never seemed so menacing.