Give us a Smile - Talking about the Pub
Beyond the Screen - just for a minute!
Music for the piece: The Stray Sheep in Catherine is the quintessential bar setting for me and is a place I find myself returning to time after time. In Catherine, you’re encouraged to explore this small environment, get to know the locals and help them navigate their troubles.
And if I’m talking about anything to do with my bar work, this is the music I listen to. Catherine was creating the ground work for Persona 5 in many ways and Shoji Meguro’s use of jazz here is one of many foundational pillars that we saw later.
For now? Click and listen.
For those who have (very kindly) started reading my work on games, you might be surprised to know that it isn’t the gaming industry that’s keeping the lights on for me at the moment. As well as throwing myself to the wilds of the internet as I wax poetic, I also frequent the serving side of a local bar in the evenings as a way to build up some savings in prep for the future. It’s as humble as you can get, and this time of year always manages to stir some complicated feelings for those in the hospitality sector.
As much as I wish I could work in a bar like The Stray Sheep, Seventh Heaven, or even the Gates of Hell from Bayonetta, reality is often rougher than fiction. The hours are long, customers can be inconsiderate, and being forced to stand there with a customer service grin can be enough to suck the soul out of you.
Bad days don’t exist in the hospitality sector.
Getting off my soapbox, I love the place I work. It’s a quaint backstreet bar that attracts a nice round-up of regular customers and bustling weekend crowds. I’ve worked in a few places over the years and this one feels like home to me. At least for now. The people I work with are all diamonds and it really feels like we have each other’s backs, which is half the battle on a long night.
The fact that I work with people who I can talk to about games is a small miracle in of itself. For one of the biggest sporting bars in town - we have a lot in common outside of sports. It’s fun!
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t struggles.
That smile. It’s all in the smile.
And it’s that smile that takes centre-stage in the student-led production of Give Us a Smile. I was invited to travel to Reading University and watch the play, and was floored by how resonant the seemingly innocuous story of the hospitality industry truly was. Written by Georgia Wilson, Give Us a Smile takes place entirely in a single scene, a backstreet London bar in the midst of the UEFA Euros football competition.
For anyone who’s had the pleasure of working in the hospitality industry, this premise alone should be enough to send a shiver down your spine. Sporting season in the UK is one of celebration and delirium; I was lucky not to be working during the 2024 Euros, but there was an unspoken respect between me and the people working through the crowds and noise.
Give Us a Smile taps into that understanding and puts a focus on the people behind the bar rather than the customers. The play follows V, a heavily pregnant bar worker who has to work arduous hours to make ends meet and to create comfort for her imminent baby. Immediately, the personal boundaries between work and private life are highlighted; hospitality workers aren’t given the privilege of holidays at traditional times. Christmas is a synonym for peak season. Where people in other sectors are offered precious time off with families and friends and are able to spend some time away from the desk, hospitality workers are thrown to the crowds and facilitate those gatherings.
I can tell that Give us a Smile was written by someone acutely aware of that. We entered the immersive set of the theatre to be greeted by the main character of the show, who actually ended up giving us our complimentary refreshments for the show itself. (V was played by a longtime friend of mine who I hadn’t seen in ages, so being met with a very strong cliff-face was a shock, but was worth it for the immersion! Hi Tabby!).
This was the face of someone weathered by long shift after long shift, of someone who deals with out-of-touch managers and of someone who needs a chat with someone other than the drunk construction worker on the other end of the bar. Over the course of the play, Give Us a Smile candidly and succinctly explores the ins and outs of a typical day in a heated environment like this. Unruly customers making tasteless remarks, a lack of understanding and patience during busy periods and entitlement to the nines.
Even small moments of respite are ruined by an overbearing boss that lept to every extreme to try and twist the knife and threaten her with redundancy. It’s a heavy thing to watch, especially being in the scene.
I felt myself grimace more than once and that’s a credit to how well this play is written. Even the comedic arc of an archetypal “Karen” manages to ring somewhat true. We all have stories about “those” customers and this feels like another contribution to that communal tapestry of rolled eyes and inconveniences.
For all of its comedy and twists, Give Us a Smile highlights the very complicated and predatory relationship between the hospitality industry and the people who support it. The luxuries that bad managers can levy, the sexism and discrimination that people can face as they’re expected to rough their way through a 10-hour shift. It’s a tiring job, and lots of people do it for the sake of making ends meet. For the unlucky few - like V - it can feel like you become something less than human. Someone who deserves to be looked after and supported through pregnancy is instead being threatened with the loss of her livelihood.
There were brief moments throughout where the lights dimmed and the focus was given back to V as she listened to the heartbeat of her baby. For a brief moment the focus was stolen from her manager and the trials of the grind, V was able to take a moment to breathe before being put back into the fire.
I felt dreadful by the end of the play and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible. Between a woman in need, and a TV screen, it was the screen that won. If anything, watching this play will make you think twice before getting snippy with your server.
I appreciate the invite to go and watch the show as a part of their final production. It was a memorable night and was the first time that I’ve had the privilege of watching a stage play performed like this!
I couldn’t help but immediately jump on the opportunity to write about it and share my thoughts - it’s not often that my experience in hospitality gets to cross over with my writing.
Merry Christmas, tip your bar staff and please don’t ruin their holidays!