The tension between creative freedom and commercial compromise is on the mind of Dan Bishop with his new play Target Audience, which extrapolates corporate shilling to its apocalyptic extreme.
It opens with high-minded novelist Tobias (Henry Calcutt) arriving at the offices of a TV company where he’s slumming it for a day as a script doctor. His ambition is to slip some Trojan horse political commentary into the uninspired projects he’s been tasked with improving, but the company’s nepo baby producer, Angie (James Coward), and his right-hand woman, Bruiser (Molly Windust), are more concerned with appeasing their shady parent company than any attempts at artistic expression. Also in the meeting is intern Isabelle (RhéAna Kamalu), an aspiring writer whose mix of Gen Z snark and political purity is in sharp contrast to Tobias, a much more malleable, people-pleasing millennial with one eye on affording a house one day.
As entertainment industry lampoons go, Target Audience is a rather tame one. Its live wire cast does most of the heavy lifting to sock across repetitive gags about data-driven content and commercial briefs (apparently people want to watch something “simple, salacious and preferably Sydney Sweeney-ey” after work). The satire becomes more barbed when the focus shifts to how easily, as individuals, we can abandon our ideals for the promise of an easier life. Again, this is hardly revolutionary, but it does give you something to contemplate on your walk home past posters of standups baldly attempting to catch the eyes of streaming giants and banners for a festival whose corporate sponsor is in bed with weapons tech.
Target Audience, Pleasance Courtyard, until 30 Aug (not 17), 4.50pm