Uber Buys Half the Tickets to Theater Show Inspired by Company’s Scandals

Ride-sharing company Uber reportedly purchased half the tickets to the opening night of a new satirical play being performed in London which was inspired by the company’s many scandals.

Business Insider UK reports that ride-sharing company Uber has purchased half the seats to a new theatre show titled “Brilliant Jerks,” set to be performed in London. The play is largely inspired by the numerous scandals surrounding Uber over the past few years and even features a character very similar to Uber’s former CEO Travis Kalanick. The play was reportedly inspired by a blog post from Susan J. Fowler who published information on the allegedly toxic and sexist workplace culture at Uber.

Fowler’s blog post led to multiple investigations at Uber and uncovered a number of scandals that eventually caused co-founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick to resign from his position at the company. Now, Uber has reportedly purchased 50 of the 90 seats available for the theatre show on the opening night at the Vault theatre in London. The Vault’s website describes the play this way:

In December 2008, an American entrepreneur left a tech conference in Paris. As he stood in the street, unable to hail a cab, an idea landed with the falling snow: tap a button, get a ride. Ten years on, a company with the simple idea of connecting people to taxis is now the biggest start-up in the world.

But with success comes growing pains. Silicon Valley’s sweetheart is now the subject of multiple scandals, from boardroom sexism, through to workers’ rights and passenger safety. Brilliant Jerks tells the story of three people – a driver, a coder, and a CEO – working for one tech monolith, but living worlds apart. Mia, a troubled young mum, drives nights in Manchester. Sean, a talented but drifting programmer, is recruited to the company’s London office.

And Tyler Janowski, ex-CEO and former adviser to Trump, tries to figure out where it all went wrong.

It isn’t hard to connect the dots and see who the character of “Tyler Janowski” is meant to be. An Uber spokesperson stated that the company’s decision to purchase the 50 seats for the show was just a company bonding exercise and not unusual. The spokesperson stated: “Our staff social team regularly organize nights out and activities from table tennis tournaments to theatre trips. After seeing shows like ‘Wicked,’ ‘An American in Paris’ and ‘Romeo & Juliet’ the social team thought it would be fun to see this new production – especially as the tickets were on a buy one get one free offer!”