Rational Animals brings Mike Bartlett’s acclaimed play Bull to Newcastle this July, with a five-night season at The Dungeon, Adamstown Uniting Church, 228 Brunker Rd, Adamstown NSW 2289.
The play centres on three employees competing to hold onto their jobs, placing the audience squarely in the middle of a confrontation where corporate survival instincts and outright cruelty become difficult to tell apart. Bartlett’s writing examines the mechanics of workplace power, drawing a sharp line between professional rivalry and the kind of targeted behaviour more commonly associated with the schoolyard.
Press responses to the play have been strong. The New York Times called it “a modern morality, or amorality, play that keeps its adrenaline level high and, at the very end, raises it off the charts,” while The Stage described it as “short, slick and emotionally unflinching… delivers a decisive punch.”
Sessions run as follows: Wednesday 22nd July at 7:30pm, Thursday 23rd July at 7:30pm, Friday 24th July at 7:30pm, Saturday 25th July at 7:30pm, and Sunday 26th July at 5:00pm.
The production is recommended for audiences aged 14 and over. Content warnings apply for coarse language, adult themes, and themes of bullying and victimisation.
