The Consultant

a comedy by Neil Fleming

March 23-April 16, 2011 at Theatre503, London

November 2-December 1, 2019, Theater Matte, Bern, Switzerland - as "Die Berater"

The Consultant received its German-language premiere on November 2, 2019 at the Theater Matte in Bern, Switzerland, with the German title Die Berater. It was translated into German by award-winning German playwright Ulrike Syha, with a Bern-Deutsch dialect version prepared by dialect expert Theo Schmid. The show ran to full houses until December 2.

 Directed by Marion Rothhaar.

With Res Aebi, Sara Judith Bürge, Jerry Lergier, and Sonja Nydegger.

Stage design by Fredi Stettler, Lighting by Markus Maria Enggist.

The German text is available in German from publisher-agent Per H Lauke Verlag, Hamburg. See also Theatertexte for details.

2011 production:

Directed by Geoff Church
Designed by Agnes Treplin, lighting by Howard Hudson

A Hydrocracker-Theatre503 co-production

With James Wilby, Pip Donaghy, Helen Millar and Sian Webber.

Neil Fleming's Faustian tale about power and love unpicked the worlds of management, and management consultancy, and took a hard look at the relationships we build - and destroy - each time we go out to work.

"Hydrocracker turns the business world into intriguing and gripping theatre... The cast of four, led by Pip Donaghy and James Wilby, is terrific; the swerves of their dialogue intrigue and grip; the crisp staging against Agnes Treplin's gleamingly Modernist set keeps the tension high. Even the scene-changes are exciting with their jabs of light and rattles of machinery...  (Donaghy gives) a riveting performance...If it becomes hard to believe anyone like Donaghy's James actually exists, the insights into the dark mysteries of his craft remain fascinating."   Jeremy Kingston, The Times

"Brighton's Hydrocracker company makes its London debut with this lively new play by Neil Fleming... Fleming is at his best when he writes about the mechanics of external expertise... Fleming offers some sharply funny satire on business waffle and is shrewd enough to suggest that consultants occasionally expose the gentlemanly amateurism of the commercial sector... Geoff Church's production is also vigorously acted by a strong cast. Pip Donaghy as the maniacal James, Helen Millar as his seductive sidekick, James Wilby as the nervy executive and Sian Webber as his strong-minded spouse put flesh on Fleming's argument that we live in a credulous age in which management consultants are treated with a superstitious awe once reserved for alchemists and astrologers." Michael Billington, The Guardian

"Entertaining and genuinely funny. Fleming has an ear for dialogue and dissects the meaningless jargon of the corporate world - 'paradigm shifts' and 'metrics embedded in workflow' - with real sharpness and flair."  Alistair Smith, The Stage

"Fleming is a lively, pleasingly cynical writer. (Pip) Donaghy is a modern-day Satan, slithering around and spitting out words like poisoned darts.  Miriam Gillinson, Time Out

Photos by Matt Andrews

Hugo Shackleton is a man in trouble. And the trouble is: he doesn't even know it.

Chief of a struggling hi-tech company, hounded by competitors, despised by his own Board of Directors, he needs a Big Idea to turn his business around.

Except if he comes up with one his wife will leave him.

Into their world rolls James Ross, a charismatic management consultant with a dark past, furious with all mankind, and brilliant.

With him comes Nicola Patchett, ferocious strategy analyst, member of Mensa, and a threat to Hugo's marriage of another kind.

James promises Hugo he can change him forever.

But once you sign up with The Consultant, he never leaves.