Theater Review: A surreal and witty examination of women in a male workplace

Do You Feel Anger?

Written by Mara Nelson-Greenberg

Directed by Margot Bordelon

Vineyard Theater, Manhattan

April 23, 2019

Mara Nelson-Greenberg is another example this season of a young playwright given a chance to have a play produced off Broadway. The New York Times recently featured articles and a roundtable discussion of young black playwrights whose works appeared this season, so this youth movement is quite a trend in New York theater--no more paying your dues for years prior to getting a play produced. While the resultant plays can be inconsistent, plays like Do You Feel Anger? justify the strategy. This was a fresh, creative play with its own unique voice. It also gave a millennial woman the chance to comment on the hot topic of sexism in the workplace.  She demonstrated a refreshing style and perspective quite different from that of older women writers, and certainly from that of men.

I have never seen a play written quite like this one. It mixed farce with contemporary commentary (and tragedy) in a unique way, as if a Theater of the Absurd play by Beckett or Ionesco was updated into the modern workplace. But unlike those playwrights’ works, this play never felt consciously modern or experimental or difficult—just delightfully quirky. The play is set in a bland corporate conference room where an “empathy coach” (Tiffany Villarin) is brought in to quell office abuse and discord at a firm whose employees do bill collection by phone. The office is rife with abuse of customers and particularly with abuse of women employees. Women in the office are propositioned, demeaned, joked about (in their presence), even “mugged”, or physically jostled. One woman is represented by only her bags, since she disappeared to the restroom weeks ago, never again to return. The empathy coach tries to lead the men (and one woman) through a series of exercises designed to help them understand each other, and the customers. But it’s a tough slog, since the men seem completely detached from other people, and see women only as sex objects. When doing an exercise in goal setting, one guy says his is “unreciprocated oral sex”, which becomes a mantra, chanted again and again by the men during the play. While all of this sounds gloomy, the playwright combines it with wild use of language, and farcical moments. When advised that he should install a tampon dispenser in the women’s restroom, the boss looks incredulous, then asks what tampons are used for, then texts his assistant to ask what a woman’s “period” is, then dissolves in terror once this is explained. Another male employee responds when challenged with nonsensical French words and really bad poetry (“empathy is a bird”). Perhaps best was the bullying Howie, played with sublime farcical nonverbal and verbal humor by Justin Long. His creative physical gesturing and extreme facial expressions took the already farcical dialogue to a higher level. I think the oddly surreal dialogue was the playwrights’ view of the coded office speech and behavior that excludes so many women (and others) in some workplaces.

I always worry that these sorts of plays will run out of steam once we settle into their basic style and vibe. This one managed to stay funny and topical throughout its 80-minute single act. This was in part due to a big coup de theatre near the end, where the set suddenly (and brilliantly) changes from the sterile corporate board room to a fantasy women’s restroom. Here we meet the long-lost employee, who has been hanging out there for weeks; here the female employees take on fantasy roles, including that of a mermaid. The message seems to be that the only really safe place for women in the workplace is in a fantasy restroom. Maybe that’s why so many women in old movies escape dinner together by going to the ladies’ room. This also reminded me of an old SNL skit, where the ladies’ room was portrayed as a lavish spa, with beefcake guys fanning and servicing the women who retired there…the Ladies Room Men Do Not See.

The main reason the play stayed potent throughout was that the author was nimbly able to alternate farce with real angst. The main female employee also speaks in her own ridiculous ways, trying to join the male culture, awkwardly. But a few times, with the support of the empathy coach, she was able to speak honestly about her fear of abuse. The men are utterly unable to process such honesty, responding with either inappropriate jokes or over the top stress responses. In the end, Do You Feel Anger?  showed little optimism that we are on the way to creating an egalitarian mixed gender environment. That it did so with so much humor and creativity is a testament to the talents of its young playwright.