The 1990s “greed is good” wave of mergers and acquisitions that swept across Europe seemed obsessed with making profits for the rich, no matter what suffering it caused.
London Zoo lets us glimpse some of the imagined internal antics during that period of a group of UK National News Group (UKNNG) executives involved in the takeover of a small profitable publication where they can subsequently cut jobs to make a tidy sum.
CEO Alex (Dan Saski) leads the assault, demanding everyone keeps their eye on ensuring the merger makes more money for shareholders. Meanwhile, smirking executive Christian (Harris Vaughan) smoothes the way in backroom conversations with other decision-makers.
The practical aspects of the corporate merger are overseen by the accountant Charles (Simon Furness) checking the financial side and Arabella (Natalie Lauren) dealing with organisational matters. Their work is supposed to deliver paperwork that officially confirms a pile of money for shareholders.
Unfortunately, Charles produces an honest report that implies the opposite, and Arabella has serious doubts about the health of UKNNG. Alex argues, “there is no place for an HR girly approach,” and decides to get rid of Charles.
Although Christian used to rate Charles quite highly, he admits that he has become “a wet girl’s blouse” that needs to go, but not before they have made the deal. Taking Charles to a special men-only club, he persuades him to write a more palatable report.
Arabella is the only female executive, which she claims sits badly with the fact that most of their workforce is female. That doesn’t bother the boys' club that runs things and is happy to dish out sexist comments at the drop of a hat.
Overseeing all this in a privileged moneybags way is Sunil (Anirban Roy), charming others with pictures of himself on horseback at a polo game, or casually saying something racist about black Kelvin (Odimegwu Okoye) who heads the company they are taking over.
When Arabella confides to Sunil about the “bullish” way Charles is being treated, he looks sympathetic, but immediately she leaves the room, he phones Alex “to get rid of her.”
Women don’t belong in their world. As Arabella points out to a couple of fellow executives, there are 2,000 top companies and only 4% of them have a woman on the board.
The light, satirical depiction of the closed club of boys chasing the money no matter what suffering it causes those having to tag along for a wage is certainly a believable reflection of a dysfunctional system of mergers that continues to this day.
However, the characters lack depth, despite the play encouraging our sympathies for Arabella and to a lesser extent Charles. The story is also a slow burner, low on dramatic tension even in its tacked-on, unexpected, improbable end section which may raise a smile but seems to belong to some comic book adventure rather than a serious play.