The reviews are in for Bull, Mike Bartlett’s 2013 play about three colleagues fighting to keep their jobs through a round of redundancies, now revived by the deaf-led company Deafinitely Theatre and performed entirely in British Sign Language, with surtitles. Paula Garfield directs Ciaran O’Breen, Jasmine Whipps, Danny Lee and David Sands in the Park Theatre’s studio, following dates at Birmingham Rep and HOME in Manchester. The critics agree that signing the play changes it rather than merely translating it, and BroadwayWorld and LondonTheatre1 both single out the sharp physical performances. Bartlett’s cruelty earns less sympathy: Plays International thinks the play has aged, while The Arts Desk and London Box Office both found its bleakness hard to warm to.
The verdict: six reviews in so far, and all six carry a rating: three four-star notices, one three-star and two two-star, an average of 3.2 out of 5. Every critic finds something to admire in the British Sign Language staging; where they part company is over Bartlett’s play itself, which the lower-rated notices find too relentlessly cruel to warm to.
What are critics saying about Bull?
BroadwayWorld
"Mike Bartlett's play about corporate bullying goes silent in Deafinately Theatre's BSL adaptation."
Reviewer: Cindy Marcolina
"The performers make pronounced acting choices, taking body language to exciting new levels. Lee’s sleazy charisma, Whipps’s mean girl nature, Thomas’s insecurity, Carter’s assertion—all their attributes emerge from precise decisions in Garfield’s blocking and ultimate mise-en-scène. The performances might not be too subtle, but they deliver the nuances of the material smoothly. The action is not completely silent, with Eleanor Isherwood’s sound design contributing a low rumbling intensity to emphasise certain scenes. Combined with Jessie Addinall’s lighting, the significance of the pivotal moments in the plot explodes."
LondonTheatre1
"An unsettling portrayal of conniving collusion as the ugly face of capitalism is on full display."
Reviewer: Chris Omaweng
"This production is the first time Whipps and Lee have taken on lead roles in a play, and they are remarkably convincing, even as thoroughly dislikeable characters who really do seem to get up in the morning with a mind to make other people’s working lives as miserable and intolerable as possible. It is tempting to think that the conduct of the characters in this show was exaggerated for dramatic effect. That may be true, but the toxic workplace dynamics here are fairly commonplace and experienced by more people than one might expect, because it is relatively easy to get a job in such a workplace, on account of good workers leaving and positions frequently becoming available."
Roviews
"A play about corporate nastiness"
"As somebody who doesn’t understand sign language, I found that both fascinating and, at times, challenging. When the characters are effectively shouting at one another, what you see is increasingly aggressive signing and physicality rather than raised voices. There are moments where music, sound and lighting are introduced to heighten the sense of anger and rage, and these worked extremely well."
Plays International
Reviewer: Maryam Philpott
"The hefty surtitles are stuttering and gappy, struggling to keep up, yet the BSL performance gives Bull a greater physicality than Bartlett’s spikey text, expanding the comedy with broader gestures, demonstrative actions, or facial expressions that add to the sense of force. As the production unfolds and attitudes towards Thomas harden, the hate also feels more physical as a result, even more unnerving than the dialogue alone might suggest. This Isobel and Tony are aggressively prepared to make good on their talk, adding to the nasty taste that Bartlett’s work leaves behind."
The Arts Desk
"It's a long hour with nightmarish nihilists"
Reviewer: Gary Naylor
"The characters may be hard, nay impossible, to like, but the actors bring a certain humanity to these monsters. I’m glad they did because, past 60 years of age, I often tune out when a play, a film or a book becomes too relentless in its nihilism. The cast just about succeed in providing a life-raft to stay afloat on this sea of troubles."
London Box Office
Reviewer: Stuart King
"With dialogue silenced then re-energised through BSL, delivery of the scenes proves a fascinating watch. The moments requiring descriptive talents to convey a sports car drive and other nuggets where physical expression takes the place of the spoken word are effective and enlightening. Pity then that this modernist, Darwinian, survival of the fittest tale, finds characters delighting in such abject cruelty and then gloating as their victim unravels."
Production photographs by Becky Bailey.
For more from this week’s openings, read our roundups of Antigone Exits at Chichester’s Minerva Theatre and Educating Rita at Curve, Leicester.
Bull runs at the Park Theatre until 24 October 2026.
