Brilliant Jerks
03 March 2023
Southwark Playhouse Borough
4.0 out of 5.0 stars
Brilliant Jerks is a new play exploring the story of one of the most successful start-ups in recent history. Telling the story of the famous ride-hailing app through the CEO, a coder, and a driver, it’s a fast-paced three-hander illuminating the different facets of the business.
From a brilliant idea to a behemoth of the tech industry, the show examines the scandals and costs intertwined with the success story.
A young driver working nights in Glasgow leads through her difficult past that led her to becomes a driver in the first place, and her personal life bleeding into her work in dangerous ways, while a coder joins the bro-culture of the coding “dojo” and is faced with difficult decisions when obvious discrimination affords him advantages while his female co-workers are left behind, all while the inventor and CEO of the company descends into scandalous celebrations of his success.
The play poses many questions about the success through exploitation, workers rights, and the pervasive toxicity of letting “brilliant jerks” reign at the top of the company.
Touchingly told through three individual lives affected in devastating ways, this play is a whirlwind exploration of a company’s controversial rise, and poses many questions about ethics and responsibilities.