Fringe Review: TARGET AUDIENCE, Above at Pleasance Courtyard
Photo credit: Ali Gorman
Target Audience invites you to take a long hard look at the world. This satire fires at the big corporations, at corrupt bosses, at what exactly the Average Joe is, at where morality lies when mortgages need to be paid off - and it mostly finds its target. Undoubtedly a romp of a performance, Target Audience flits between dizzying scenes where each character outpaces the last and a gentle lull, where the audience wait for the script to get back on track a bit.
The show starts with an obnoxious American CEO-type (James Coward). It’s one that we know well and can happily relax into. A relieved sigh, we don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Convincing in his role, Coward’s Angie, running a television company, ticks all of the American boxes - loud, over-emphatic but in a fake way, superior - and to counteract him is the awkward Brit (Henry Calcutt) who is exactly that. There’s a deadpan top-of-her-class intern (a compelling performance from Rheana Kamalu) who should probably be running the show, and a sap of an assistant (Molly Windust) straight from the middle class. Windust plays the stiff upper lip with sparkling snootiness. It’s a recipe for a satisfying satire. A commentary on the world around us today: politics, corporations, class and moral quandaries. But somewhere along the way, it misses its target.
The premise of the performance is intriguing. Word from the government dictates a pro-weapons slant must be fed into a new sitcom written by Tobias (Calcutt) under instruction from Angie. Who is under instruction of a parent company, of a parent company… and the government. Tobias is a boycotter - he cancelled his Spotify premium, but when it turns to the age-old pacifism or paycheck debate his morals are called into question. This is where Target Audience shines, it asks what the individual would do (and does) for a better life. Writer Dan Bishop carefully looks capitalism in the eye and unpacks the ironies of the arms trade and involvement in global conflict when it isn’t right on the doorstep.
In places, Target Audience is packed with bite, it fizzes with energy with several genuine laugh-out-loud moments. But as it takes its time warming up to the crux of the narrative and wends its way through sub-plots that add little to the overarching story, the pace is lost. Some cheap laughs feel out of place given the provocative nature of the story which loses polish and subdues some of the other comic greatness.
An enticing prospect, Target Audience has the potential to be an explosive satirical production but winds up as more of a mixed bag of lacklustre punchlines in amongst sharp comic timing. But for a bit of fun at the Fringe, Target Audience brings an hour of comedy and some interesting food for thought.
*** Three stars
Reviewed by: Hannah Goldswain
Target Audience plays at Above at Pleasance Courtyard until 30 August, with further info here.