Theater review by Raven Snook
Think your job is torture? The Receptionist is a reminder that it could be worse. At first, title character Beverly—played by the comedy crackerjack Katie Finneran, who can get laughs with just a judgy glance or awkward cackle—seems to have a pretty sweet gig overseeing a spartan waiting room: kicking off her shoes under her desk, dumping sugar packets into her coffee, nattering on the phone, lecturing her younger colleague Lorraine (Mallori Johnson) about her romantic choices and transferring most work calls to voicemail, since her boss Mr. Raymond (Nael Nacer) is nowhere to be found.
The Receptionist | Photograph: Courtesy Joan Marcus
The atmosphere starts to become more ominous, however, when a handsome and charming emissary from "the central office,” Mr. Dart (Will Pullen, sharp in a black suit and bright red socks), shows up looking for the head honcho. What does this company actually do? Where is Mr. Raymond? And in a world gone paranoid, how much power do any of us have?
The Receptionist | Photograph: Courtesy Joan Marcus
Beverly's Rolodex, fax machine and clunky computer indicate we're in the aughts, but Adam Bock's slight yet sly 2007 play is a disturbingly timely work that speaks to our current culture of surveillance as well as to the ways we compartmentalize our lives in order to get through the day. Beverly is quick to tut-tut others for their moral failings—she's particularly upset at even the hint of infidelity—but she barely bats an eyelash at more disturbing revelations.
The Receptionist | Photograph: Courtesy Joan Marcus
While this Second Stage revival is not as darkly funny as it should be early on, director Sarah Benson does a better job with the chilling second half; a nighttime scene with an empty office and the phone and fax ringing off the hook raised my pulse, and even Mr. Dart's small talk has sinister implications once Beverly learns that anything she says can and will be used against her. That sense of unease lingers once The Receptionist ends. The play’s austere office set, by the design collective dots, is the embodiment of the banality of evil: You don’t want to think about what goes on behind its firmly closed doors.
The Receptionist. Signature Theatre. (Off Broadway). Written by Adam Bock. Directed by Sarah Benson. Starring Katie Finneran, Mallori Johnson, Nael Nacer, Will Pullen. Running time: 1hr 20mins. No intermission.
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The Receptionist | Photograph: Courtesy Joan Marcus
