On the way to an interview for a job, one in a proper office that his mum can be proud of, Ben Weaver witnesses a man falling from the sky. He is drawn to the dead stranger’s lanyard and, for reasons he can’t articulate, pops it around his neck.
The lanyard reads: Ben Manager. Our hero’s ascent through a sinister corporate system begins.
This play, created by Bunkum Ensemble, is this year’s winner of the Pleasance’s Charlie Hartill Fund. Through live scoring, puppetry and experimental PowerPoint presentations, the team build an uncanny office environment that slowly drives Ben to the edge of sanity.
The cast, with writer Jack Parris starring as Ben, are clad in run-of-the-mill office wear, even puppet colleague Derp (operated in this performance by Teele Uustani). Mike Coxhead and Adam Boothroyd play the live soundtrack from their cubicle desks. Corporate phrases and cliches – circle back, socialise the news – drip from tongues as Ben tries to convince everyone that he’s supposed to be there, and convince himself that he wants to be.
But what is his job? “I’m responsible for … I’m just responsible now!” he tells his mum. It’s soon clear that no one’s really doing anything.
Ben himself is a bit of an enigma, emanating a desperation and fragile masculinity that’s heightened by the workplace and sometimes plays a little queasily in the room. There’s commentary on the cruelty of business, hypocrisy of “wellbeing” initiatives, and true value of many modern jobs.
The ominous, rumbling soundtrack keeps you on edge and an otherworldly atmosphere builds, compensating for strands where the messaging is a little more muddied. As Ben ascends the corporate ladder, we shift into dystopian sci-fi, where senior management are encouraged to self-actualise in surprising ways. But with Ben now initiated into the cult of work, can he let go of the facade of productivity and his precious lanyard?
At Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, until 25 August