Sexual politics on Madison Avenue
If I were a therapist working with someone experiencing work place bullying, I would recommend the book Bully in Sight: How to predict, resist, challenge and combat workplace bullying by Tim Fields and send them to The Fierce Urgency of Now, Arouet Theater’s world premiere of Doug DeVita’s new play, which opened at Stone Soup Theatre, last weekend to sold out audiences.
Using the milieu of contemporary Madison Avenue, whose details are a little different from TV’s Mad Men, in that there is no smoking in the office, cell phones instead of secretaries, no drinking in the office, but whose basic culture is much the same, the author focuses on how four individuals deal with a workplace bully.
Seattle’s favorite “tough broad” Lisa Viertel, played the workplace bully, Kate, a Vice President at a Madison Avenue Advertising Agency, who is simply “the boss/friend/colleague/ from hell.” Every pejorative adjective one can possibly imagine embodies her personality: hypocritical, manipulative, two-faced, bullying, and with no more sense of how to constructively supervise workers than Simon Legree. Lisa Viertel played her expertly as perhaps the most despicable person any of us has ever met.
The four individuals affected by Kate’s machinations have various complicated relationships to one another. The art director and main character Kyle, played by Evan Louis Thomas, is going through a classic but serious 30 year-old crisis. That is to say, it is now or never to change careers, he is extremely good at what he does, but it is not really what he chose, nor does it fulfill him.
The author poses an interesting question by making him appear temperamentally unsuited for the job, but on the other hand perhaps his subconscious mind is winning over his conscious mind and causing him to behave in ways which sabotage his unsuitable career.
As the most developed character in the play, Evan Louis Thomas played Kyle as vulnerable, talented, needy but not an entirely pathetic character, capable of compassion and devotion to those he has befriended. His internal battles as well as his verbal sparring with Kate were hilarious. He is also easy on the eyes.
Embedded in the plot is a modern morality tale. Unlike many office political battles, where the bad guys win, in this play, the good guys win, though perhaps not as blatantly as one would think or perhaps wish. ( N.B. however much they deserve it, no one gets shoved down an empty elevator shaft)
A testament to the expertise of the playwright is the intricate interconnected relationships of the people in the office and in the Ad business. The political ramifications of who is sleeping with whom, whose relative was whose mistress, as well as how one’s enemies acquire and exploit that knowledge is highly amusing and not unrealistic. The author cleverly plays with the questions we all must grapple with at work: whether letting down professional boundaries is courting disaster or life-affirming.
On almost every level this was an outstanding production; the cast was terrific, in addition to Lisa Viertel and Evan Louis Thomas, perhaps the best performance was Laura Crouch as Dodo, a much older copy-writer, who navigates the mine fields of office politics with more wisdom and detachment than Kyle. The friendship which develops between the two was very touching, and Couch delivered her lines with crackling dry wit, as she played an expert game of verbal chess.
Bearing a striking resemblance in both character and appearance to Mad Men’s Roger Sterling, Mark Waldstein as Neil, a 50 year-old VP, in an impeccable three piece suit, played a highly morally flawed character, who in the end, does the right thing for the right reason and ends up walking away from the battlefield relatively unscathed.
Kelly Johnson as Meryl, a newly risen star copy-writer, had many of the qualities of the evil boss, but because she is essentially a compassionate person, she evolves from being a pawn into a being a newly anointed Queen in the chess match, as she reaches the end of the board and turns the boss from hell’s life upside down, without selling her friends out. Ms. Johnson played her with just that right combination of snarkiness, sweetness and epoxy.
As a script, the exposition was highly effective. In two very short scenes, the author managed to engage the audience in the conflict immediately without a lot of lengthy verbiage. In addition, the dialogue was zippy and hilarious.
However, the script like so many modern plays, was written like a TV script with a lot of little scenes, so there were difficulties with the staging. The set design by Kim Rosin exacerbated the problem and the set changes slowed things down. Stone Soup Theater is not the best place to stage a show with a lot of set changes. It would have been better to use different sides of the stage for the different scenes and move the actors back and forth, rather than move furniture in and out of the small space.
The issue with the set was only a minor flaw in an otherwise extremely entertaining, insightful play with therapeutic value. Workplace bullying is tragic, being able to laugh about tragedy is the best therapy there is. And it has no side effects except that it is contagious and infects the rest of us with happiness.
The Fierce Urgency of Now by Doug DeVita. Arouet Production at Stone Soup Theatre, 4029 Stone Way N. Fremont, Seattle, Through Nov. 22nd. Tickets: