House Rules

BBC Radio 4 The Afternoon Play Oct 10, 2007

This play involves tough guy card gambling stuff. I don't know why card playing is a concern of tough guys. It's not like it is at all active, manly, but is people sitting around a table for hours looking at numbers and pictures on little cards.
There is money involved and we know that tough guys are always interested in money. Why is that? Maybe tough guys are really scared little boys worried about their personal security.
That said, I didn't find this play very interesting at all. It could have been that the tough guys were too tough, and not at all interesting enough for me. One of the guys has a wife and they have a couple of scenes but they are of low emotional content. Mostly just disapproving wife stuff that didn't add much conflict, or doubtful self-searching, to the proceedings.

I guess the only thing I like about manly gambling stories is when they are really addiction stories. This isn't that.
If one is really interested in the game itself there in no satisfaction here since the play skips the game entirely.
It's really a father-son story.
There are Joe Strummer tunes, and he was pretty great.

The Employee

A radio play by Sebastian Baczkiewicz

This week's The Friday Play on BBC Radio 4 is a replay of The Employee.

This is beautifully produced and directed by Marc Beeby. He gives it a very realistic soundscape that helps the play work. It doesn't SOUND silly and is acted with total conviction with a fine cast headed up by Ron Cook as Iain "With two 'i's.". Mr. Cook's performance in itself makes the play worth a listen. Our Iain is a very loyal worker. He is a building maintenance man at The Elm, a high tech, climate controlled, terrorist proof high-rise office building. But he is not loyal to the managers above him or the clients who rent space in the building. He loves and owes his loyalty to The Elm itself. Is this not what we want in a building, a man who loves it and knows it very, very well? It would seem that this would be the best except that what is more important to others in the pecking order. Those above him know little about the actual function of The Elm, but that doesn't keep them from lording over our Iain "With two 'i's."
This is the conflict in Sebastian Baczkiewicz's play which comes off as a sort of mix between a Stanislaw Lem novel and the Capra movie It's a Wonderful Life (maybe with a touch of The Marx Brothers or Olson & Johnson). But this is not all silliness. There are indeed some very dark comedy elements in The Elm. If you are a upper or mid level manager of others you might want to stay away. It might just increase your paranoia about what 'They" are really up to. If you are one of the rest of us you might find in much more amusing and somewhat familiar.

It is available at BBC Radio 4 The Friday Play through April 12, 2007.