BAD COMPANY

18 June 2026

There aren’t many television programmes or films about theatre companies and I just wish there was one less: the ABC’s Bad Company.

The six part “comedy” started when I was away so I’ve only just had the opportunity to catch it on ABC i-View. And my response – not a single laugh during the entire season. Before you start to say that I’m too sensitive because I worked for a theatre company for so long, not true. I adore the Canadian TV series Slings and Arrows which is about a subscription theatre company like Melbourne Theatre Company. I used snippets of as salutary and hysterical lessons when teaching Arts Management. I can’t find it on any Australian streaming services but you can find the first season on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ3s8aK8BXE


Back to Bad Company. What makes it so bad? A commentator on The Conversation has got to the heart of some of the problems: https://theconversation.com/the-abcs-new-workplace-comedy-about-a-theatre-bad-company-simply-mocks-from-the-outside-279452

The show focuses on every aspect of theatre company that people might find ridiculous such as warm up exercises or absurdist drama or spending on hand made wigs when you can buy them at Spotlight. As Graffam-O’Meara says, its mocking from the outside. There’s none of the humour that Slings and Arrows finds in the artistic/financial tension between the Artistic Director and the Managing Director.  Putting people into egg costumes so you can snicker about them doesn’t make for good drama.

What a disappointment.

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