Gloria, by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, was shortlisted for a Pulitzer, and although this is a smartly written and structured piece about office politics, it is not obviously prizewinning material. Having said that, it will be required viewing for anyone having a rocky time at work because, however stressed you might feel, you will be relieved not to have to compete with the staff of its New York magazine. The play starts with catty inconsequence but is then overtaken by the shockingly unexpected – as if Ibsen had gone into overdrive (no spoiler intended).
Director Michael Longhurst navigates the poisonous shallows of office life with skill. Lizzie Clachan’s design is satisfyingly spot-on with all the essentials: water-coolers, photocopier, piles of cast-off paper. But as I watched, I felt I must lead a charmed life – the level of ambition, cynicism and viciousness is unlike any workplace I have encountered.
Colin Morgan is excellent as Dean – disaffected, hungover, the sort of person who appears to take up more space in a room than his colleagues. Kae Alexander’s formidably self-possessed Kendra talks a blue streak and spends more time at Starbucks than at her desk. Ellie Kendrick’s subtly played Callie is a mix of nice and nasty – with quirkily matched clothes (orange tights, girly frock). Miles, the intern (an entertaining Bayo Gbadamosi), appears compliant but harbours mutinous optimism, resolving not to end up a journalist himself.
Nan (like the editor in Michael Frayn’s Towards the End of the Morning) is invisible at first. She is convincingly played by Sian Clifford, who is also Gloria, the office old-timer who never got promoted, has no friends and wears the frumpiest cardigan ever seen. The play’s thesis is that we no longer like or really talk to one another at work. It takes a lot of talking to reach this cheerless conclusion.
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