Since it is well known that art imitates life, it is no surprise that if you search ‘alpha podcast’ on your phone’s relevant app you are going to find more than one listening option called “The Alpha Podcast” or similar.
Although there must be other podcasts that do, none of these seem to share the noxious premise of the fictional podcast in Lucia Collado’s new play of the same name that aims to fire a shot across the bows of those that spew the hatred advocated by the likes of Andrew Tate.
In Collado’s mocking comedy, the fictional podcast is a forum for three ‘bros’, Drew, Adam and Frank, to share their misogynistic views with audiences. For the leader, the peacocking Drew, it is also a way to make money through sponsorship, because for him, masculinity is intertwined with wealth and calibrated against the size of a man’s car.
Frank is as faux as they come, his paraded ‘feminine side’ justification for espousing pseudo-empathetic nonsense, and Adam is a man-child following Drew’s lead like a devoted puppy.
Joining the trio is special guest on the podcast Oliver, a raging, anti-feminist academic whose physical attributes don’t match the fit, six-packed, alpha-male stereotype promoted by Drew. It is Oliver’s presence that causes the camaraderie between the three to break apart along predictable fault lines.
By its nature, this parody is populated by caricatured types of male, and the cast put in bags of energy to make sure that that they remain absurdly larger than life and the pace of delivery never slips, though clarity is occasionally the victim of haste.
There is a lot of comedy in Collado’s dialogue and she certainly covers a lot of the bases in terms of the subject’s themes, but her focus on making these models of masculinity look utterly ridiculous and their theses so laughable comes at the cost of referencing the very real consequences of the character’s toxic beliefs.
If there is no peril, then what is the danger presented by these buffoons? Collardo needs to lace her writing with sharper edges to create cutting satire and hit the bullseye.