Who Do You Trust?

My wife and I went to see The Receptionist this afternoon. It was a play put on in the old Armory building. I didn't really know what to expect. I had heard nothing about it. For about the first half of the play I'm thinking it is just a light hearted comedy about the wide variety of problems a receptionist has to deal with. And then it takes a left turn into the vicious world of torture. At first I am not even sure that is what they are talking about, maybe the playwright is just playing with words and it's going to come out that they are talking about something totally innocuous. I mean they are talking about it right out in the open in the office as if it just some ordinary daily occurrence. Turns out they are talking about torture and they are talking about it like it is a daily occurrence because it is, that is their office's stock in trade. A grim little tale.

There were a couple of good lines. Things really turn the corner when the head of the office is himself taken to the "Central Office" for interrogation. At this point the professional woman asks "who can you trust when you do not know who to trust?", or something along those lines. A bit later the receptionist says "If they took him in for interrogation, he must have done something wrong." It is not too much later before she herself is taken in for interrogation. After all, she must know something. She's been working in this office for two years. How could she not know anything? They will find out.

I'm looking through the program afterwards and there is virtually nothing in there that talks about the play itself. There was one page that talked about office politics. I was aghast at the kind of petty, pointless drivel that was being promoted as advice. I dunno, maybe that's what most people are really like: petty and pointless.