Theatre review: Night City

Max Wilkinson's Night City, which premieres at Southwark Playhouse Borough's Little Theatre, follows three London workers in the gig economy, and opens by warning us that one of them will wind up dead by the end of the story: Jack (Jack Ambrose) works for a fictional rideshare company, and despite finding out he has a congenital heart condition is, at the start of the play at least, the one out of the trio who most embraces the stressful, intense conditions of working on a zero-hours contract. One of his passengers is Tia (Bex Smith,) an aspiring writer who's only recently arrived in the city, and who's making ends meet at a café chain. The two start a casual relationship that grows into something more serious. Less directly connected to them is Tamara (Helena Pipe,) a carer whose employer has recently been bought out by a firm looking to maximise profits.

But the consultant now running the service and demanding nobody spend more than 10 minutes with a patient (or "customer") doesn't want the same treatment for his own family, so Tamara is assigned to spend whole days caring for his elderly mother.

The two strike up an odd-couple friendship, and many of the show's funnier moments come from Smith as the imperious old lady namedropping weird encounters with the various celebrities she claims to have known during her life. Meanwhile for Jack his enthusiasm for the gig economy takes a blow when one of the other drivers is seriously injured, and their employer takes it as an opportunity to crush attempts to improve workers' conditions.

The backdrop to the story is the buildup to the Employment Rights Act 2025, which shadowy corporate forces are trying to defeat or at least severely defang. Ebenezer Bamgboye's production has a set from Olivia Jamieson that uses chains linking the ceiling to the floor to create a claustrophobic environment for the characters to navigate; it keeps up a dynamic pace thanks to the physicality and intensity of the actors, although Rose Ryan's movement work was largely lost on me - it's usually accompanied by very bright, flashing lights from Arnim Friess that mean anyone even the slightest bit photosensitive will have to avert their eyes.

Wilkinson's play is generally strong although it can't quite decide how naturalistic it wants to be - the ending could have edged into something dreamlike, but instead we get a courtroom finale that doesn't ring true, but doesn't quite go into the realms of fantasy either. And with the cast multi-roling, Bamgboye's production could have been clearer in how it handles this - I'm pretty sure that one recurring character was played by more than one actor but that wasn't entirely clear, perhaps in part because it didn't make sense for him to be involved in all the story strands in that way. Still, some interesting ideas flying around even if they don't all land.

Night City by Max Wilkinson is booking until the 3rd of October at Southwark Playhouse Borough's Little Theatre.

Running time: 1 hour 25 minutes straight through.

Photo credit: Lidia Crisafulli.