Breaking the Bank

Every year since 1881 in the forests of northern California, a secretive club of male elites in the world of politics, finance, and culture gather to burn an effigy in front of a giant statue of an owl in order to leave behind the worries of the past. The Bohemian Club’s Cremation of Care ceremony, as it is called, is a living example of the creepy antics of the wealthy. Whether gathering in a red-wood forest or Epstein’s island, images of a cultish global elite have captured the public consciousness since the days of the Freemasons. Tonight in East London we are granted an intimate peek into this sordid world. A group of yuppies have covered their faces in makeup, each wearing a number, waiting to be saved by the public despite their hand in the 2008 global financial crisis. Our emcee, a lowly cleaner, asks us to applaud for a winner. “Tonight,” he says, “we’re going to find out whether a good man is hard to find.”

Performance

Bullyache: “A Good Man is Hard to Find”

Place

Sadler's Wells, London, UK, May 7, 2026

Words

Eoin Fenton

Bullyache's “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” Photograph by Andrea Avezzù

“A Good Man is Hard to Find,” a work from interdisciplinary theatrical duo Bullyache (Courtney Deyn & Jacob Samuel), is a glorious mush of finance bro aesthetics, Queer irreverence, ritual, and kink culture. The latter being especially apparent in the opening third of the work: slithering nude bodies struggle to dress and undress in and out of suits while manspreading onlookers gaze from an office chair. A major work for any fans of the “Clothed Male Naked Male” category of gay porn. There’s some piss too. But Bullyache’s interest with these images never reeks of gratuitousness or hamfisted subversion, rather it makes evident the underlying kink and homoeroticism of the men who hold to these cult-like fraternities so dearly. It feels almost natural in the setting of this dilapidated bank boardroom, where it seems like the afters are starting to get weird.

The set, designed by Tor Studio, is especially impressive. A lacquered table and mini bar are monuments of austere power compared to a giant shattered window. It is as if whatever explosion that occurred outside left those within the fortress unscathed. Their fictitious bank’s logo appears an awful lot like that of Barclay’s, a bank which has drawn ire and condemnation due to its investments in the oil and weapons industries—they are one of Sadler’s Wells’ main sponsors. The image of the broken bank is not only a metaphorical image, but strikingly resembles the many smashed and vandalised Barclays offices across Britain during the height of the protests against Israel’s bombing of Gaza. The polemics of the outside world have come uncomfortably close to Sadler’s Wells’ doorstep.

Bullyache's “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” Photograph by Andrea Avezzù

The work as a response to the crash is compelling. There are times where we pity these men in suits who brought the world to its knees as they become the subjects of cruel hazing rituals. At other times their swaggering and boyish mannerisms are nauseating, especially when they gather around the unconscious body of one of their counterparts to pose for photos. The dancers, through their ability to shift between submissive and dominating archetypes at the drop of a hat never feel like caricatures. They are more alien, more uncanny. Their movement vocabulary is one of extremes. Spitting and slapping, greedy yanking, limp bodies twirling. Often someone is being subjugated by another, pulled or tossed aside like a sack of meat.

The final third of the work, set to a recording of the sometimes-weeping, sometimes-screeching strings of Shostakovich, reveals the creative duo’s choreographic chops with pure movement, reminiscent of figures like Bausch and Brown. But certain limits are exposed too, there is a lot of repetition and moments where the references feel a touch too evident. While the layout of the evening is episodic, this does not distil any of the impact of “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” The emerging Bullyache still have room to stretch and sprawl, but they seem to be making all the right moves. This is the punkier, political edge that dance so badly needs.

Eoin Fenton

Eoin (they/he) is a dance maker and writer based in Cork (Rep. of Ireland), and London (UK). They have danced across Ireland and London in venues including The Place, Project Arts Centre Dublin and Galway Cathedral. Eoin graduated with a BA in Choreography from Middlesex University in 2024 and began writing as part of the Resolution Reviews programme. They are a regular contributor to A Young(ish) Perspective.

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