The Upcoming
  • Cinema & Tv
    • Movie reviews
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Show reviews
  • Music
    • Live music
  • Food & Drinks
    • News & Features
    • Restaurant & bar reviews
    • Interviews & Recipes
  • Theatre
  • Art
  • Travel & Lifestyle
  • Literature
  • Fashion & Beauty
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Competitions
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureTheatre

The Win Bin at the Old Red Lion

The Win Bin at the Old Red Lion | Theatre review
4 September 2015
Mersa Auda
Avatar
Mersa Auda
4 September 2015

An entire generation lives under the pressure of the “employability” concept, a phenomenon demanding the same set of specific qualities from the most varied range of individuals. Attempting to fit a mould is especially problematic for artists, as the very nature of the job-hunting process is at odds with the unpredictability of creative trades. The Win Bin explores the ridiculous heights that even the most talented people find themselves reaching for in order to secure a job. Created by Kate Kennedy and Sara Joyce, the performance is characterised by dark irony and sharp, fast-flowing humour.

The play begins with an awkward job interview where the nervous candidate is so aware of the gap between what she ought to say and who she really is, that she ends up twisting the truth and second-guessing every answer. Upon hearing that there are six candidates being considered, a reality show type of scenario begins to unfold on stage. The potential employees are battling for the last paid job in the arts, and their every move is monitored over the course of a 12-hour assessment day.

Wilf Scolding and Kennedy herself play three characters each, swiftly switching personalities and professions. The journey to employment is seen as a survival-of-the-fittest quest where the final goal becomes an obsession that obliterates all sense of reason and logic. The characters are stuck in a plain, almost clinical room, polka-dotted in the style of Yayoi Kusama. In the soulless space, their fears and insecurities are magnified. Kennedy is wonderful in her shifts between quiet self-consciousness and aggressive determination, and Scolding is a great match for her dynamic performance.

Highly entertaining and absorbing, the play sends out a powerful message about the faults in the mercenary process of marketing one’s qualities as money-making tools. When the candidates begin to measure their worth against an arbitrary interview score, they gradually annul their personalities and morph into the imagined model of the perfect employee. For the sake of recognition and a paltry wage, they allow the system to hijack their sense of self in a raw and, at times, brutal manner, bordering on the Kafkaesque. The Win Bin speaks for a large and ever growing number of people struggling to find expression in the inflexible employment game.

★★★★★

Mersa Auda

The Win Bin is on at Old Red Lion Theatre from 1st September until 26th September 2015, for further information or to book visit here.

Related ItemsreviewThe Win Bin

More in Theatre

The Throne at Charing Cross Theatre

★★★★★
James Humphrey
Read More

Beauty and the Beast: The Musical at London Palladium

★★★★★
Cristiana Ferrauti
Read More

National Theatre’s Connections Festival 2022 showcases young theatre talent across the UK

Sophia Moss
Read More

Evelyn at Southwark Playhouse

★★★★★
Jim Compton-Hall
Read More

Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World at Theatre Royal Stratford East

★★★★★
Natallia Pearmain
Read More

King Lear at Shakespeare’s Globe

★★★★★
Michael Higgs
Read More

This Is Not Who I Am/Rapture at the Royal Court Theatre

★★★★★
Jessica Wall
Read More

“Flamenco is a race where there is no end – you never stop learning”: An interview with Manuel Liñán on ¡Viva! at the Sadler’s Wells Flamenco Festival 2022

Jessica Wall
Read More

Jitney at the Old Vic

★★★★★
Jonathan Marshall
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Theatre review

Mersa Auda

The Win Bin

★★★★★

Dates

1st September - 26th September 2015

Price

£10-£15

Links & directions

WebsiteMap

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Beauty and the Beast: The Musical at London Palladium
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Paolo Nutini – Last Night in the Bittersweet
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • St Vincent at the Hammersmith Apollo
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • The Railway Children Return
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Netflix Walking Tour: From Bridgerton to The Crown, a free walking tour through the filming locations
    Cinema & Tv
  • The Throne at Charing Cross Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • “We really wanted to create a cabbage gun”: An interview with David Earl and Chris Hayward stars of Brian and Charles
    Cinema & Tv
  • Paolo Nutini – Last Night in the Bittersweet
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Viagra Boys – Cave World
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Ithaka
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Paolo Nutini – Last Night in the Bittersweet
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Viagra Boys – Cave World
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • The Railway Children Return
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Adele lights up Hyde Park for BST Festival
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Beauty and the Beast: The Musical at London Palladium
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why
With the support from:
International driving license

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

The Oresteia at the Globe | Theatre review
Secret Cinema presents Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back | Review