Review: The Cost Of Ambition And Arrogance Over Humanity And Compassion In The Corporate Cubicle Farm Is Considered In GLORIA

By: Jun. 12, 2019
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Review: The Cost Of Ambition And Arrogance Over Humanity And Compassion In The Corporate Cubicle Farm Is Considered In GLORIA

Tuesday 11th June 2019, 7:30pm, Reginald Theatre

The office environment can be competitive and catty, particularly if people forget that work takes up a large portion of people's lives. Centred in the potentially declining world of magazine publishing, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' GLORIA poses a possibility of what happens when ambition overrides the courtesy and compassion vital for a functioning society.

Review: The Cost Of Ambition And Arrogance Over Humanity And Compassion In The Corporate Cubicle Farm Is Considered In GLORIA
Michelle Ny as Kendra, Rowan Witt as Dean and Annabel Harte as Ani (Photo: Clare Hawley)

Set in the cubical farm of a magazine office in New York, the audience is given an insight into the world of the ambitious assistants who don't seem to have much to do except bitch and snipe and plot their path up the corporate ladder and their first blockbuster book before they turn 30. Nan's assistant Dean (Rowan Witt) is catty in his cutting remarks, only outdone by Eleanor's assistant Kendra (Michelle Ny), but he at least made it to older misfit copy-writer Gloria's(Georgina Symes) housewarming party the night before and was at his desk before the eternally lazy but overly entitled Kendra. Ani (Annabel Harte) is a bit different to Dean and Kendra as whilst she is also an assistant, she has greater skills as a scientist that she can fall back. The pod of four desks is completed with the quiet and conscientious intern Miles, an Ivy League student on his second last day with the magazine. Dean, Kendra and Ani are loud, obnoxious, opinionated and oblivious to the fact that others in the workplace may actually have work to do causing fact-checker Lorin (Reza Momenzada) a great deal of upset as he works overtime at a job he doesn't really like whilst Gloria lurks the halls quietly seething that hardly anyone turned up to her party.

Review: The Cost Of Ambition And Arrogance Over Humanity And Compassion In The Corporate Cubicle Farm Is Considered In GLORIA
Michelle Ny as Kendra, Justin Amankwah as Miles and Annabel Harte as Ani (Photo: Clare Hawley)

The insensitivities, aggression and bullying are extreme as the core three carry on like high schoolers posturing and trying to show off their self-importance and perceived superiority, ignorant of anyone else's feelings and insensitive to the fact that others may be trying to work. Kendra wins the prize for emotional destruction or as Ani describes it, emotional terrorism, but soon they have more to think about than whether the bright young intern is after their job. The fallout from their insensitivity sees some behaviours change but most remain steadfastly narcissistic with self-serving ambition.

Review: The Cost Of Ambition And Arrogance Over Humanity And Compassion In The Corporate Cubicle Farm Is Considered In GLORIA
Rowan Witt as Dean, Justin Amankwah as Miles and Georgina Symes as Gloria (Photo: Clare Hawley)

Director Alexander Berlage ensures that the work comes to a slow boil, drawing the audience in to understand the nature of the competitive workplace but when it hits its target it does it with startling effect. The observation that Lorin makes regarding the uniformity of workplaces and the types of people found in them is reinforced with all performers except Momenzada playing multiple roles. Annabel Harte delivers a sweet somewhat naive and submissive Ani, willing to go along with Kendra's insults but shifts to a more formidable but equally ambitious Sasha, Nan's new personal assistant and a vapid and insensitive Callie, movie producer Jenna's assistant. Rowan Witt's expression of Dean has a wonderful physicality and realism as a taunting older assistant battling it out with Kendra for top dog but ultimately having more humanity to realise that personal gain should not always come at the cost of someone else. Kendra is made decidedly vile and obnoxious by Michelle Ny as she creates a character that will do anything and everything to 'win'. Justin Amankwah's roles as Miles, Shawn and Rashaad are all somewhat smaller but still serve to show the self-centeredness of the generation. The older 'outcast' and butt of office jokes Gloria is given a nervous anxiety by Georgina Symes as her physicality expresses more of her character than her sparse dialogue but Symes presentation of successful editor Nan is given a greater force as the self-centred WASP who tries to sell a story of an event she wasn't even fully present for. The key to the work is Reza Momenzada's Lorin who sits outside of the story to the extent that he does not occupy the same office pod as Kendra, Ani, Miles and Dean. The 'outsider' is close enough to the core players but also removed enough to see the destruction of the 'game' they are playing and he no longer wants to be part of perpetuating the cycle.

Review: The Cost Of Ambition And Arrogance Over Humanity And Compassion In The Corporate Cubicle Farm Is Considered In GLORIA
Michelle Ny as Kendra, Rowan Witt as Dean, Reza Momenzada as Lorin, Annabel Harte as Ani and Justin Amankwah as Miles (Photo: Clare Hawley)

Presented in a sleek box set of semi opaque walls, GLORIA could be any modern open plan office where no one has privacy and sound carries easily. Set and costume designer Jeremy Allen keeps the set design simple with enough to give it personality but not too much to shift it from the realism of office spaces where workspaces show character but are still just part of a cubicle farm. Costuming expresses the differences between character types, from the young and preppy assistants and intern to the older world weary copy-writer and fact checker and the powerful editors and producers.

Review: The Cost Of Ambition And Arrogance Over Humanity And Compassion In The Corporate Cubicle Farm Is Considered In GLORIA
Georgina Symes as Gloria and Annabel Harte as Ani (Photo: Clare Hawley)

For anyone that has worked in an office, this funny and shocking work has many elements that are relatable and whilst not many still work in print media offices, there is still driving ambition to be found in every workplace, even for those not tied to a desk. Hopefully GLORIA can serve as a warning to think of other people, be kind, be considerate and be compassionate to the people that you do spend a large portion of your lives with and remember that work may be the dominant factor in many people's worlds and that ambition should not come at the cost of being decent humans.

https://www.seymourcentre.com/events/event/gloria/



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