The Rat Race

Human Resource(s) – Theatre Evolve

Theatre Evolve’s second season premieres with a new play, Human Resource(s) by Sara Means. The focus of the show is on a team of sales reps who are told by their boss that whichever members brings in the most sales at the end of the quarter will get a promotion and whoever gets the least will be fired. Human nature being what it is, the three quickly devolve first into increased bickering and jealousy, and finally outright attacking each other, each hoping to win, or least be saved from the chopping block.

Matt, played by Trevor Strahan, and Sally, played by Jackie Seijo, are a pair of long time frenemies at the office. They go to the bar after work together, but don’t actually like each other very much. Newcomer Dylan, played by Jonathan Allsop, is at first more worried about losing his new job than winning the competition, but learning from Matt and Sally may wear him down sooner than he realizes.

Orbiting the trio are manager, Trudy, played by Andrea Uppling and executive assistant Alice, played by Shanna Sweeney. Their relationship is where the show really shines and its point about the slow, steady dehumanization of the workplace really lands. Trudy uses insincere pleading and aggression so passive it has somehow become active again to slowly take over more and more of Alice’s time. Despite theoretically not having a personal stake in Trudy’s competition, Alice seems to end up with the most additional work helping to manage it, all while watching her colleagues turn into monsters. Uppling attacks the part with unrestrained glee, flinging backhanded compliments and increasingly outrageous demands left and right, ending up as a kind of demented circus ring leader. Sweeney has a much more grounded character and keeps her stress largely bottled up, and the contrast serves the show well, letting the audience feel offended on her behalf.

The play has a few noticeable weak spots, however. Dylan transitions from wide-eyed innocent to cutthroat too quickly without the intermediate steps that would make that change really land with any impact. The show touches on, but doesn’t really develop the themes of the unique issues that women or people of color face in their jobs, so the issue gets reduced to a few throwaway remarks. The biggest issue I had was one of tone. I can’t tell if the show knows how absurd a world it wants to inhabit. The characters exist between extreme, but real, and cartoonish, and I don’t think the show quite knows where it wants to land. It particularly impacts the ending, which I won’t spoil, except to say that the back third of the show focuses on a plot device that gets hand-waived away in the last five minutes, and so the show just…ends.

That all said, the cast is very good, and for whatever narrative questions I have, I can’t deny the show overall has a darkly comic glee that kept me engaged for most of the show. Everyone in the audience should recognize at least one of the characters from one of the places they have worked, though hopefully not more than one.

Recommended

Reviewed by Kevin Curran

Presented June 14 – July 6 by Theatre Evolve at The Edge Theater Off Broadway, 1133 W Catalpa Ave. , Chicago.

Tickets are available by visiting www.theatreevolve.com.

Additional information about this and other area productions can be found at www.theatreinchicago.com.