Gloria

Not very much work happens in the part of the office where the play opens – but on the other hand everything is happening. The agenda of the magazine journalists is not writing stories, rather who attended the housewarming party of misfit Gloria the night before, can the intern fetch something from the vending machine, bitching about an article written by another reporter and private phone calls.

Although playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins says none of the drama is based on his own experiences at the New Yorker – I must admit to feeling my cheeks go crimson at the recollection that some days, when I worked in an open place office of a media organisation, my productivity was similarly less than stellar.

One beautifully drawn character rolls in after the other.  Rowan Witt (Dean) is hilarious as he recalls the events of the housewarming party from hell, Michelle Ny (Kendra) is deliciously bitchy, Justin Amankwah (Miles) silky smooth as the intern, Georgina Symes fraught as Gloria and Reza Momenzada brings the house down when he rails against his peers for making so much noise when others in the office are stressed out of their brain.

Ambition and jealous rivalry run very close to the surface.  When Dean leaves the office, his rivals peek at the secret project he is pitching, and Dean in turn is driven to distraction when the intern gets a long chat with the boss. About to turn 30, he is worried that he might soon be replaced by a younger, hungrier rival.

A cannily designed set by Jeremy Allen evokes further the feeling of being in a modern yet drab office complete with a photocopier, adjoining hallway and a door leading to a manager’s office.

The tone of the play changes and the next set – in a Starbucks café – is equally convincing.

There is continuity in some of the characters, whilst other actors portray new roles in the narrative with sharply different roles. Most striking is Justin Amankwah’s morphing from intern to Starbucks’ employee to upstart boss.

This was a gripping night in the theatre that makes your head spin.

David Spicer

Photographer: Clare Hawley