A Good Man is Hard to Find draws inspiration from the 2008 financial crash, and the “Cremation of Care” ceremony; an annual ritual ceremony where the global elite banish their guilt, by the San Francisco private members club Bohemian Grove. From the breakout choreographic duo of the Biennale Danza 2025, this dark and dominating performance investigates uncomfortable scenarios about power plays, hierarchies, humiliation and sacrifice. Encounter brutal degradation and in-your-face aggression in this raw exposé of masculinity. The dancers dissect the mythology of power, exposing the absurdity, delusion, hazing and destruction that define these men – emotionally trapped somewhere between a god and a teenage boy.
Review by Stephen Gilchrist
Fred Astaire’s philosophy that “all movement is dance” was central to his revolutionary approach to film, turning mundane actions like walking, looking in a window, or interacting with props into perfectly timed, rhythmic art. I would argue that this philosophy has had a profound impact on contemporary dance, certainly Pina Bausch and now Bullyache, whose show exemplifies the link between the two where movement an extension of character and emotion rather than just a musical intermission.
Bullyache’s founders/collaborators Jacob Samuel and Courtney Deyn have directed and choreographed an evening of apocalyptic corporate corruption and greed, derived, the directors say, from the financial crash of 2008 and a time when an annual ritual ceremony was performed where the global elite banish their guilt, by the San Francisco private members club Bohemian Grove.
A Good Man Is Hard to Find is a full-length piece for six performers, The house lights go down. The audience is kept in darkness for what seems an interminable time. The curtain finally goes up to a half-light setting. An oblong table is set downstage right, possibly a boardroom table. There are swivel chairs. A man, suited and booted enters from upstage, pours himself a drink and sits. Downstage left we notice something, a human being perhaps, crawling, snakelike, undulating, concertinaing, sidewinding,
Other men gradually enter. It is apparent that they are suited but dishevelled. For the next 70 minutes or so they indulge in an orgy of hedonism, intimidation, sexual and physical abuse towards each other. They dance with each other, seek intimacy, vomit, they urinate and periodically a Cleaner comes in to clear up. He too is both abused and celebrated. He is forced to vocalise Schubert’s ‘Ave Maria’ while one of the members of this bizarre club is abused. Is this a ‘club’ or a torture chamber.
The soundscape is by Bellyache and for much of the evening is techno. Later, and for the last 20 minutes so Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Op. 110.is danced to thrilling effect as a messiah-like sacrifice is prepared and made. I suspect this piece much influenced Bernard Herrmann’s scary score for Psycho (1960) as both share an intense, string-driven sound, although they were composed for vastly different purposes.
A victim has been chosen, after a parodic gameshow shaming the participants for their part in the financial crash and its effect on individuals, by the Cleaner to ‘live.’ ‘Living’ apparently means being sacrificed.
Much of the movement by the abusers appears naturalistic. The abuse victims, bend, contract and release, articulate their spine, and use the floor for support, rolling, and sliding, the deliberate, slow development of the narrative only serves to highlight the periodic moments of pure dance and the manic finale. All the performers excel. Bullyache claim to have a working class and queer identity in relation to pop culture. But this is more than just a gay show. The relationships between the characters supersedes any gay identity. It is about ‘top of the world’ elitist supremacy.
This is an extraordinarily fine piece of work, a bleak reconstruction of a ritual or rite celebrating, or perhaps apologising for, the elitist greed which toxified, and still toxifies, the planet. You may not like it, but you will admire it for its conceit, production and performance and, I guarantee, will not forget it.
Photo credit: Andrea Avezzu
BULLYACHE A Good Man is Hard to Find Sadler’s Wells East
Music, Choreography and Direction: BULLYACHE – Courtney Deyn & Jacob Samuel
Costume Design: La Maskarade
Lighting Design: Bianca Peruzzi
Set Design: TOR Studios
Creative Director: Sinisa
Performed by Sam Dilkes, Oscar Jinghu Li, Giacomo Luci, Pierre Loup Morillon and Fenglin Yang.
Technical Production Manager: Andy Downie Producer and Tour Booker: Flo Trioux
Thursday 7 – Saturday 9 May 2026
Tickets from £15 70 minutes/no interval
Age guidance: 12+ BSL interpreted post-show talk on Thursday 7 May 2026 Sadler’s Wells East Late on Friday 8 May 2026 Ticket Office: 020 7863 8000 or www.sadlerswells.com About