While not the slickest show this side of the Royal Mile, Sh!it Theatre’s Job Seekers Anonymous was definitely something extraordinary. Though advertised under cabaret, the show is essentially two young women explaining the flaws in the current employment market and the injustices in the benefit system. Don’t start yawning, I promise it works - somehow.
The charming thing about the show is that you can tell how genuinely angry and frustrated these girls are; this is the way a lot of us feel about the economic lot we’ve been handed and now have to go out and live with. Whether this show would appeal so much to non-students is questionable, but for someone poised on the edge of the real world it is very relatable. A song where they narrate their lifetime ambitions was especially effective: ‘When I was 18 I wanted to be a West End actress. When I was 22 I wanted to get off the dole.’
Despite tripping over the set and themselves, Sh!t Theatre threw in several moments of what has to be called physical theatre. They combined a song about the prevalence and inequity of unpaid internships with a circus act that involved Internship Girl jumping through flying hula hoops. This and other musical numbers were the highlights of the show and could have easily been utilised more. When someone has enough skill to sing songs about politicians’ dead kids and fashionable burqas then they should really make the most of it.
The performance was overall solid if scatty - I pitied their stage manager as they tore their costumes apart and repeatedly tripped over the set. Both costumes and set seemed unnecessary and simply hampered two excellent performers. However, the stage covered with ripped up newspaper, as with the whole show, might well prove more poignant for young people than others; like the performers, they are facing a future where a degree that was going to open doors seems now to be so much scrap paper.
