EDINBURGH 2023: Review: TEMPING, Assembly George Square Studios – The Cubicle

It’s your first day at a new job, and you’re ushered into what is clearly someone else’s office. Their trainers lie under their desk where they were kicked off; a photo of their nephew peeks out from behind their monitor; their Post-It reminders and motivational posters cover the walls.

You’re about to start your job temping for Sarah Jane, an absent actuary. You’re expected to take over her duties immediately; reporting on the financial costs of risk and uncertainty. In this case, it’s the costs of life and death.

This is Wolf 359’s Temping presented by Dutch Kills Theater, an immersive show for one participant at a time – one participant and no live performers. It’s an extraordinary piece of work: subtle, intricate, intriguing and provoking. 

The story that surrounds you is immediately open for exploration. You could start out by riffling through Sarah Jane’s belongings, exploring the files on her PC or even raiding her stash of Hershey Kisses. Whatever you’re doing at the time, though, soon the flashing light on your landline will signal your first voicemail.

As you feel your way into your role, you’ll grow to discover not only what your job is, but also what the company does at scale – and the dawning realisation of that is gripping and intensely subjective. 

The scope of the intricacies of the narrative is dictated largely by you, and it’s that illusion of choice that’s immediately and sustainably compelling. How will you respond to your faxes and emails? With which characters will you engage? Vitally, how good will you be at this job? 

Naturally, the options are finite – but with only one performance under my belt, it’s impossible for me to say to what extent this is. What I do know is that negotiating yourself as a character, and watching the way you impulsively react to different stimuli, is extraordinarily interesting and strangely fun. 

The limitations of one experience are taunting, but at least I’m unable to reveal spoilers. If I could have returned multiple times to explore different possibilities, though, I would have done so in an instant. Could I have been the next Sarah Jane?

Temping at The Cubicle, Assembly George Square Studios until 27 August

To post a comment, you must register and login.