Ideas Men has a branding problem. As amusing as it is, this satire of corporate
culture is pretty much patented by The Office.
It’s a similar kind of bleakly depressing comedy — only it uses improvised roleplay to send up the creative practices used in modern business.
This particular office is run by a suave exarmy man called John, who claims to have been shot down over Iraq. Under him, Liam Brady and Mike Mullet squirm for approval as the desperate duo whose inability to come up with an idea leads to mounting friction.
The hour-long show is the newest from Ridiculusmus — the two-man band who brought us the satire on Northern Ireland politics, Yes Yes Yes. Where that was acted on a piece of turf in a suitcase, this is an equally absurd staging.
Computer mice are used as phones, flip charts are defaced with boob drawings and the characters wear weird bouffant wigs.
There is a lot of puerile humour and silly games, but there is also much Kafka-esque paranoia in an open-plan environment where everyone is watching everyone.
In their multiple roles, David Woods and Jon Hough perform tirelessly with extreme abandon.
However, they could use a little more creative strategy to shape their dizzily
illogical conclusions.
