BPF: "CYA" is Bad Business at Mobtown

◊ 1/2 out of five.

This past Friday, I put in 11 and a half hours at work – nine at my cubicle and two and a half at Mobtown's Baltimore Playwrights Festival opening of CYA by Kimberley Lynne.  A modern office drama, this derivative play is long on realism – the language, the admins and bosses, and the behind-closed-doors business and funny business are just like at a real office.  But for all of this reality, the play just doesn't work.  There are a few reasons, but the bottom line is this: business is boring to watch.

Director Carlos del Valle and his mostly talented cast of six very game actors deserve much credit.  I can't imagine trying to slog through the tedious and mundane stretches of dialogue just to find a plot point or some sort of hint at character.   Things start out briskly enough: we start out with the orientation of a new, pretty administrative assistant being given by an HR liaison/office manager.  Dire warnings abound!  No personal calls or emails – you are being watched!  Don't get too close to your boss – sexual harassment has been an issue before!  Don't water the plant – the boss thinks it a waste of money and water!  And then the new girl sits down, and a rather realistic sequence of phone calls, underlings trying to act like their bosses run around while the actual bosses demand dry cleaning, a scheduled time out with children, and a healthy dose of swearing.  (If my boss ever talked to me like that, I'd own my company by now…)  Then… NOTHING HAPPENS.  Well, ok, more of the same, with some precious nuggets of plot tossed in.  Seems the company is being bought out by a German firm.  Seems the head admin's husband has been felled at the plant where he works and is clinging to life in the ICU (If my boss made me work while my spouse was hanging by a thread, I'd find a new job, security be damned; it's his HMO paying the bills, anyway.)  Naturally, some "questionable deals" have been done and everyone is "keeping files" on everyone else.  The SEC threat hangs over everything.  Sounds like a corporate thriller, no?  Well, it would be if there were any more plot twists, surprising reveals or something.  And we might actually care if we gave a hoot about the characters.  We don't.

The majority of the problem here is that everything about this play has a been-there-done-that feel to it.  It is a "hard-hitting" look at big business greed like Wall Street; it has manly swearing and power struggles like Glen Gary Glen Ross; it has boss-secretary issues like 9 to 5; and, in a bizarre twist at the end that comes out of nowhere, there's even a dash of Norma Rae.  In fact, in a moment of sobering clarity as I shifted in my seat during the marathon that is act two, I almost laughed out loud as I pictured the head admin standing on her desk with UNION scribbled on a post-it.  She even throws in a character that has psychic visions!  It isn't that Ms. Lynne doesn't try to be original – this mix alone could have been an interesting recipe.  This playwright has a feminist streak in her, which is great.  There is so much unmined territory there, and yet she continues to stick with the tried and true. Last year's The 5^th Sister was all about girl power, but ended up being little more than women cook and clean and love each other in ways men don't understand.  This year, girl power gives it another go, but really boils down to a pissing contest, where the girl wins and still loses.  She can't beat big business and she's not wise enough to join the big boys.  (If I were going to extort/blackmail/coerce the big boss of a major banking company, I'd ask for more than $1M, wouldn't you?)

The second big issue with this play may not be the playwright's fault.  About ten minutes into act two, there was a look of panic on the actors.  Sequences of dialogue were repeated a few times throughout and an air of desperation filled the room.  The plot isn't that intriguing, so I know it wasn't that.  I'm thinking a mistake was made and places were lost, causing everyone to scramble to right the sinking ship.  Then, maybe 10 minutes later, new material came out, relief filled the faces of the cast, and we charged on full steam ahead.  Now, I am hypothesizing that the cast lost its way – opening night jitters, perhaps.  BUT, I could be entirely wrong.  You see, elsewhere in the play the same ideas are replayed several times, the dialogue is often agonizingly repetitive, and at least one character's entire purpose is to come in, spout off about this and that and leave.  If it is in fact opening night issues, I certainly wish all involved a better time throughout the run.  If what happened actually was part of it, Ms. Lynne needs to take a judicious knife to the script and really trim it down.  Even without the act two troubles, she might consider a 15 minute or more trim.

Finally, and most problematic, is that the characters don't get the audience on their side.  We get lots of facts and examples about each, but there is little dramatic action that shows us these people in action – not until the very end, at which point our minds have already checked out and we are contemplating whether our local McDonalds is one of the 24 hour variety.  For example, Jerry is a boss.  He used to be a big boss, but he couldn't keep his little boss in his pants, so he got demoted (she got fired).  He cheats on his wife, and has his head so far up his own butt that he doesn't realize his 14 year-old daughter throws up because she is anorexic or bulimic.  Ok, he's a sex-crazed sleaze.  His numbers are down and he has issues with the buyers of the bank.  We are told all of this.  But very little of his actions do much to support or change him.  We see him making out in the conference room with the new girl (she gets promoted), and we sort of see the appeal when he takes off his shirt.  And that's it.  The most interesting thing in the entire script is the new girl's visions, which magically disappear in act two – she thinks they are finally stopping, she muses – and her inexhaustible stockpile of history lessons that parallel what is happening in the story.  Nothing changes, I'm guessing, is the lesson.  But neither the history stories nor the visions go anywhere. And that is the problem in a nutshell.  Ms. Lynne tells us everything, shows us little and no one changes. 

Still, there is much to praise, not the least of which is Carlos del Valle's direction, which, like the script's dialogue, is very realistic.  In this case, though, that is a good thing.  The tiniest details are taken care of.  The mess in act two aside, the pacing is pretty good.  It ebbs and flows just like a real work day.  And we get to see the entire office running at once, but del Valle keeps us focused where we need to be at all times.  The scene changes – there are several  that require a large amount of prop changes each time have been carefully choreographed and never once slow down the pace.  Excellent work, to be sure.

All of this takes place on a set, designed by Angie McNulty that covers a two-admin reception area, a boss's office and a conference room.  And it never seems claustrophobic, which is no small fete considering the postage stamp size of Mobtown's space.  Justin Van Hassell's lighting does much to keep the audience's focus where it needs to be, with each area separately lit, allowing for brightening one space while dimming others.  Margaret Deli's costumes are exactly what you'd expect for a corporate setting.

The program lists a Hillary Figinski as the "voice of the operator."  She is part of a running gag about the fact that no one can understand the pages over the intercom.  It isn't funny, it adds nothing to the plot, and I think is supposed to add tension at the very end.  I'm sure Ms. Figinsky did a fine job – she can't be understood, and that's what the part calls for.

Stephen Rourke, the BIG boss at the firm, is the weakest link in an otherwise well-cast chain.  He certainly looks the part – dressed up he looks distinguished and kind of nerdy, and he walks the office with a golf club like he's on the PGA tour.  But when he opens his mouth he is never even remotely commanding, leader-like or particularly cunning (crucial to the final scene, trust me).  Instead he sounds quite a bit like Underdog, before he becomes Underdog.  His delivery is stilted, unsure and bland as oatmeal.  Therefore, any sense of menace or fear he must instill does just the opposite. 

Adele Russell as office manager Susan, pretty much gives you what you'd expect from such a character in her act one scene, which makes her performance in act two all the more pleasing.  In act two, we find out a lot about Susan – her hopes and dreams, her fears.  And as she walks the tightrope between towing the company line or doing right for herself, the conflict in her face tells more than any ten lines of dialogue might.  Ms. Russell does what no other actor in the play does – she gets us to care about her.  Zak Jeffries as the mid-level boss and son of the CEO does a fair modern take on Bud Frump (from How to Succeed…).   In short, he is a jerk with control issues and a serious inferiority complex.  Mr. Jeffries does quite well with the role, nailing the obnoxiousness, and giving us someone to root against.

Jerry, the boss we see the most, is played with style by Michael Leicht.  Jerry has the potential to be a pretty complicated character, and Mr. Leicht does his damnedest to bring out every layer of it.  He is the best kind of actor, using his face and body as much as his voice to convey what his character is going through.  Many times, his body language and facial expression do much more than the dialogue he is given.  He wears a tough, no nonsense veneer over a face that alternately pales and reddens as he weighs the consequences of his choices and actions.  He gives the honest impression that he can't help himself sexually.  And it is no surprise when Jerry makes a key decision that benefits only him, while it is clear that he will be tortured by the demons of those he purposely left behind.  Mr. Leicht gives a performance that is far better than the material he is given.

Eileen Cuff, as Jane, the new admin, is everything she should be.  She is pretty, but also cold, calculating and manipulative (just the kind of gal bosses love to have affairs with).  Ms. Cuff does the best she can with that odd combo of mentalist and history geek that she is given.  She delivers each and every story like she actually researched them herself .  But she does her best work when being the scheming vixen.  Jane's workman's comp complaint – she twisted he ankle when making out with Jerry, an "on the job injury", she says – is outrageous and Ms. Cuff makes it believable and maddening.

Finally, as Mary, chief admin and whipping girl, Janise Whelan gives the most perplexing performance on local stages in months.  She is a good actress, but she is fighting a losing battle with the script.  She is pitch-perfect as the secretary that keeps the office running smoothly in spite of any number of crises.  And she is certainly a worthy opponent/ally of her boss, Jerry.  And at the end, when she takes control and outsmarts the big wigs, she is powerful and dominant.  I wouldn't mess with this Mary, no sir.  But she falters in one major way.  The sub-plot about her dying husband has her looking somewhat sad, but never really worried or preoccupied even.  And when she says that her husband has died, it is so off-handed in delivery that I bet there were people in the audience who missed it.  Not a tear was shed; no one else questioned why she was there instead of home.  A chance at some emotional connection was completely missed by Ms. Whelan.  In fact, it is the lack of change in her line delivery throughout that makes all but the last scene sort of a monotone blur from this character.  And as the central character, this is not a good thing.  It robs us of the chance to care.

CYA, like many business deals, probably looks better on paper than it does in actual execution.  And while I lament that this was two and a half hours I'll never get back, it is part of the job.  No workman's compensation claim will be filed by me.

PHOTOS: Courtesy of Mobtown Players.  TOP to BOTTOM: It's a Woman's World: (L to R)Eileen Cuff, Janise Whelan and Adele Russell; Who's the Boss?: Michael Leicht and Janise Whelan; The Company Way: (L to R): Michael Leicht, Eileen Cuff, Janise Whelan, Stephen Rourke,  Adele Russell and Zak Jeffries.

 

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