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Venue: Arcola Theatre, London
Writer: Michael Wynne
Cast: Paul Keating
Director: Lucy Bailey
Dates of run: until August 23
Running time: 65 minutes
From “The Office” to “W1A,” workplaces have provided a rich vein of television comedy.
Now “Clive,” by award-winning stage and screen writer Michael Wynne, proves that working from home is perfect subject-matter for a theatrical one-hander.
It’s perfect in that no theatrical conceits are required to convince us that, apart from Clive, a human-sized cactus, all the other characters in the life of home-working IT specialist Thomas, played by Paul Keating, are somewhere else.
However absurd, it’s also entirely believable that Thomas puts on a tie but no trousers for the Zoom calls that dictate his days.
In a crisp white shirt and white boxer shorts, he makes his way through the increasingly impossible tasks that land in his inbox, breaking off only to obsessively clean his pristine flat that is also totally white, but for Clive.
It’s testimony to Keating’s unfaltering acting and Lucy Bailey’s direction that all the other characters in Thomas’ life loom at least as large as Clive and that the dramatic tension mounts as we realise the inevitable outcome. Like Thomas, we feel “hot inside”.
There is Sue from accounts, Nigel, the absentee CEO, Luca, the threatening new IT guy and above all Naomi, the office manager turned COO. Thomas is not being paranoid; she really is out to get him.
We of course see only through the eyes of Thomas, but fully believe Naomi is Kafkaesque in her injustice and his alleged crimes, laid out in a Zoom call by the “head of people”, are outrageously trumped up. We have seen how hard Thomas works and the perfection of his home environment is testimony to his refusal to do a bad job. He has a cast-iron case against his homophobic boss.
You could read it as an indictment of working from home. I prefer to see it is an exploration of how bullies exploit whichever system they are presented with and it is up to the victims to fight back.
Clive
Venue: Arcola Theatre, London
Writer: Michael Wynne
Cast: Paul Keating
Director: Lucy Bailey
Dates of run: until August 23
Running time: 65 minutes
From “The Office” to “W1A,” workplaces have provided a rich vein of television comedy.
Now “Clive,” by award-winning stage and screen writer Michael Wynne, proves that working from home is perfect subject-matter for a theatrical one-hander.
It’s perfect in that no theatrical conceits are required to convince us that, apart from Clive, a human-sized cactus, all the other characters in the life of home-working IT specialist Thomas, played by Paul Keating, are somewhere else.
However absurd, it’s also entirely believable that Thomas puts on a tie but no trousers for the Zoom calls that dictate his days.
In a crisp white shirt and white boxer shorts, he makes his way through the increasingly impossible tasks that land in his inbox, breaking off only to obsessively clean his pristine flat that is also totally white, but for Clive.
It’s testimony to Keating’s unfaltering acting and Lucy Bailey’s direction that all the other characters in Thomas’ life loom at least as large as Clive and that the dramatic tension mounts as we realise the inevitable outcome. Like Thomas, we feel “hot inside”.
There is Sue from accounts, Nigel, the absentee CEO, Luca, the threatening new IT guy and above all Naomi, the office manager turned COO. Thomas is not being paranoid; she really is out to get him.
We of course see only through the eyes of Thomas, but fully believe Naomi is Kafkaesque in her injustice and his alleged crimes, laid out in a Zoom call by the “head of people”, are outrageously trumped up. We have seen how hard Thomas works and the perfection of his home environment is testimony to his refusal to do a bad job. He has a cast-iron case against his homophobic boss.
You could read it as an indictment of working from home. I prefer to see it is an exploration of how bullies exploit whichever system they are presented with and it is up to the victims to fight back.
Barbara Lewis © 2025.
By Barbara Lewis • comedy, plays, theatre, year 2025 • Tags: Barbara Lewis, comedy, plays, theatre