A blacker than black comedy that paints uncomfortably poignant picture of the way we live now.

‘Clive’ Is a one man show written by Olivier and BAFTA award-winning playwright Michael Wynne, directed by Lucy Bailey and starring Paul Keating
The play follows Thomas; a reclusive remote worker who spends his days cleaning, watching the world go by from his window and talking to Clive his cactus.
Through Thomas’s chats with Clive we learn the story of his life: Once upon a time Thomas was happy enough doing IT in an office where he could chat to his coworkers about their tech issues over a cup of coffee.
In fact he was so content he chose not to follow his boyfriend to Australia, naively believing that life would continue as it always had and that his loyalty to the company would be rewarded.
Unfortunately this was not the case as a vicious new manager came along, the company shifted to remote working and one by one all the familiar co workers from the office days got replaced by faceless names on zoom meetings.
Although initially content in his bubble, gradually the isolation, lack of support from his unknown new colleagues and gaslighting from his tyrannical boss get too much and Thomas’s safe little world begins crumble leaving him to face an uncertain future…

The set design by Mike Britton was clever: A sterile white room with a row of cupboards that opened to show different rooms or different facets of Thomas’s life, and Paul keating was excellent as the obsessive, naive and optimistic Thomas he never over played the character and painted a realistic and at times heart wrenching portrait of a world turned upsidedown.

‘Clive’ is an excellent piece of satire that tackles the very real problems that white collar workers are facing in the post covid era, addressing themes such as isolation, the march of technology and an uncertain future, the tropes will be familiar to anyone who has ever had the dubious pleasure of remote working.

‘Clive’ will make you cackle it will also tug at your heart strings, it’s on at Dalton’s Arcola theatre until Aug 23 rd do check it out if you can I promise you will not regret it.
https://www.arcolatheatre.com/whats-on/clive/