“Why are you being so weird?” My fiancé leaned over and whispered in my ear. We had just been introduced to the Director of Communications for a book launch held in an office in Midtown and apparently, from his standpoint, I did not act cool or in any way collected. I will admit that I was nervous. Forced professional social interactions always make me nervous. An office party isn’t just a party. The open bar becomes a test in professionalism. The karaoke machine cements your status as either the office loser or the personality-hire. The opportunity for promotion, resignation, or dismissal lurks around every corner. It’s a bloodbath disguised with wine and cubes of cheese. The stakes have never been higher.
The party that I was supposedly being so weird at wasn’t an office party at all, but, despite a very similar ambiance, a performance of one. Office Party Play is a new site-specific and immersive venture from Pocket Ghost Productions. Directed by PGP’s artistic director Shelby Gilberto and co-written by Madelyn Cardarelli (of As We Were Productions) and Kyleigh McPeek, this play, in the guise of a party, explores the complications that arise when workplace relationships are forced to exist outside of their usual and defined context of “work”. Over the course of the evening, the audience follows the employees of Pocket Ghost Publishing as they attempt to launch the career of a new up-and-coming memoirist/novelist/influencer. With a promotion on the line, colleagues go from friends, to (almost) lovers, and then enemies. All’s fair in love and war – war being a desk job with PTO, benefits, and a 401K.
We started in the lobby of a sleek high rise on 31st street and were ushered upstairs with drink tickets and instructions: don’t talk to the actors until they talk to you, don’t touch anything that isn’t handed to you, and most importantly, have fun! After fifteen minutes of awkward mingling– which, I must hand it to the team felt extremely truthful to office party culture– we were asked to take a seat, as we listened to the party organizer give a thanks and shoutout to the rest of her colleagues for helping her execute such a successful book launch. Clapping after her speech, I braced myself for more uncomfortable mingling that thankfully never came. Instead we were whisked away to the women’s bathroom, following Floss (April Consalo), one of two caterers, who just wanted a moment alone.
Then the real play begins. Office Party Play shed its original pretense of veiled networking with hors d’oeuvres to hone in on a very specific relationship in a very specific setting one set of characters at a time. In the bathroom, we press up against the wall, watching as girlboss Sasha (Mary Kate Abner) and less ambitious Carmen (Bella Duran Shedd) attempt to repair a relationship that was broken over a promotion, or a careless remark, or something like that. The real source of their troubles is left unidentified, but one can assume it has something to do with their palpable sexual tension. In the boardroom, we sit around a long conference table as two low level assistants (Zach Faust and Quinn Nehr) crawl around us, spurring each other on in an escalating game of Truth or Dare. What starts out as a way to pass the time quickly turns both menacing and extremely weird, taking the phrase “cat and mouse game” to a whole new level when Faust crawls like a cat over the vodka-soaked table. Only one of them will come out of this room alive— professionally speaking. Out on the terrace, we nestle into the foliage, listening to the Boss Man (Mark Young, bearing an uncanny and apt resemblance to Matthew MacFadyen) and caterer Grace (Izzy Mar) debate the ethics of flirting. Boss Man is a charismatic figure, lamenting about the good old days, which Grace finds odd, considering he’s maybe 30 years old. And also it seems, after another character arrives on the terrace to make a phone call, that no one besides her can physically see him. But she definitely doesn’t get paid enough to want to investigate that further.
At the end of the evening, Carmen slinks out in a wine stained dress and Sasha leaves with mascara stained cheeks completely defeated– the evening was supposed to be hers!— and we’re stuck with the caterers, getting in the way as they try to clean up. Grace has been dumped by a girlfriend and Floss is having a sexuality crisis. Their halfhearted attempts to fold the tablecloths are interrupted with late night and alcohol fueled revelations about the state of the world, their lives, and their friendship, leading ultimately (and finally!) to the first and last kiss of the night. After an emotionally fraught evening for employees, guests, and caterers alike, Floss shuts off the lights. The party is finally over. Floss guides us towards the elevators, only to realize there isn’t enough room for her and all her catering supplies to fit– “I’ll grab the next one” she tells us and we all laugh, somehow knowing she’d escape our company. The onlookers descend, leaving Floss alone with her thoughts, dirty linens, and a hard won case of leftover champagne.
It’s rare, for me at least, to go to a show billed as immersive and/or site specific and feel anything other than immense dread – dread that I’ll be pulled on stage, dread that the gimmick is going to feel like a gimmick, dread that I’ll have to spend the next however many hours more worried about my level of engagement. But Office Party Play transcends the gimmick existing as something wildly successful in form. A testament to Gilberto’s directing and vision, she takes care of her audience enough that we could fall into our role of observer without ever feeling like what we were observing was a “play”. Cardarelli and McPeek’s script bravely asks – without ever answering- “can we be friends with our coworkers?” in varyingly surprising and sexually fueled ways, crossing lines and boundaries to the point that I am frightened for the amount of paperwork that awaits Pocket Ghost Publishing’s HR department.
At the end of the evening, once safely arriving in the lobby, we are released from the shackles of corporate aspiration and sent off into the night. No one took a bow. I was disappointed I didn’t get to applaud for the team who pulled off what I consider to be a feat. But of course, it was completely fitting to leave this simulation of an office party without closure. Because really, nothing has come to an end, we’ll all see each other at work in the morning. Lucky us!
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