This Isn't Working
reviewed by Sharon Fogarty

Talented writer Francesco Marciuliano, author of the nationally syndicated comic strips Sally Forth and Medium Large (available weekdays at www.DrinkatWork.com), has gathered some of the best comic actors I’ve seen in a while to present his four short plays, or long sketches, about job dissatisfaction. The works, for me, are more true than funny, as each piece rides essentially on one joke, though Marciuliano’s one-liners, clever comebacks, and deep wit do point to a very gifted satirist.

The subject of corporate surreality is central to each work and most evident in the first piece, “The Island,” which features five office workers who, having survived a plane crash, are stranded on a desert island. In suits torn to shreds, the starving survivors attempt to continue with their “team meetings” and carry on with “business as usual.” Marciuliano wonderfully conveys that corporate tactics, abstract solutions which look good on paper, never quite get underway or focus on who is actually going to do the dirty work.

Despite the one-joke issue, the actors carry the plays splendidly, particularly when Miranda Jonte and Megan Ross battle it out in “The Awards,” about a ceremony for best pharmaceutical commercial copy. The joke of running back to the microphone to either gain self praise or further insult each other is repeated excessively, but the actresses are completely inspired each time and the work becomes entertaining because of their oddly manic determination. The two other sketches in the program are “The Meeting,” where an author has the power to write events and characters in and out of his life, and “The Takeover,” in which Neanderthals are being bought out of existence by a more advanced race.

Under Jefferson Jowdy’s direction, Marciuliano’s works fall somewhere between a Saturday Night Live sketch and a Twilight Zone episode; they seem to either need more action to become plays or crude editing to become sketches. But the actors handle this delicately and should be commended. They include Alex Goldberg, who carries a sublime sincerity in each of his complex roles, and Julia Garrett and Will Bouvier who, with their honest and calming presence, are well cast as the voices of truth amidst corporate blindness. The corporate-ladder-climbing roles are played with hilarious arrogance by Michaela Hall, Gary Culig, and David Flaherty. Peter Rodriguez and Barbara Drum Sullivan create a series of exceptional performances, leaping into their characters with complete abandon, heightening the ridiculous circumstances of each scene, and often getting huge laughs because of their serious commitment.