Henchmen, written by Amy Wright, and directed by Mark Chayanat Whittet, is a play that takes the viewers into a company wonderland hellscape of co-worker small-talk, ‘friendly’ higher center administration, and pretending to look busy whereas doing completely nothing. Having been extremely counseled by the Playwrights b425 competitors, this play is an amalgamation of Megamind combined in with the company shenanigans of The Office. It is a crossover that’s relatably humorous while unavoidably thought-provoking because the play dives into the stark actuality of company work in in the present day’s age of capitalism.
Performed within the studio of Basement Theatre, the black field is remodeled into an evil lair-like mail room located on the base of a lethal volcano. The workplace is stuffed along with your commonplace workplace furnishings, firm propaganda, and Post-It notes galore. A large projector display screen fills the backdrop, displaying Dr. Diabolical’s (the evil overlord of Dr. D’s Evil Corporation) each day bulletins. Walking into the theatre area, I observed little easter eggs of parodied posters of traditional kiwi advert campaigns from my youth equivalent to Kindfree 2025 (parody of Smokefree 2025) plastered across the set.
The characters of the present, workplace employees Lou (Kate Johnstone) and Stevie (Sam Shannon), and Team Leader Sally (Awa Puna) do an excellent job of depicting the character of working in a big white collar company, with Stevie working arduous, Lou hardly working, and Sally checking in every now and then (as that’s what workforce leaders are apparently imagined to do). I loved the comedic power the actors dropped at the present. The excessive organ that bursts in at any time when Sally enters and exits the stage reinforces each the villainous nature of the company and its hierarchy, whereas making the bit much more hilarious the longer the gag continues and repeats.
What actually captures the essence of the present is how Lou and Stevie bond as colleagues. As the outdated saying goes, opposites entice. Their deep friendship permits us to contemplate why individuals keep in such terrible workplaces, and finally results in the rationale why Lou leaves the corporate – exiting not by way of the backstage however exiting the theatre area itself, taking management of her destiny, powerfully tying off the play’s 70 minute run.
After the present’s finish, Henchmen begs the query, does working in a ‘bad’ company make us inherently unhealthy individuals? Can one actually ‘do good evil’ as Dr D states? This is a very related query for Stevie who didn’t have a lot of a alternative, working for a corporation like Dr D’s Evil Corporation could also be her solely approach of survival regardless of how she feels concerning the job. To add to this, what does it take to vary the course capitalism has steered us in for therefore lengthy? Lou certainly takes management by actually escaping the area, however what follows after is a thriller that’s past the scope of the play.
Overall, Henchmen mixes a capitalistic actuality with villainous sci-fi to supply a present that comedically feedback on the tragedy of the system we reside and breathe in. It’s unlucky that the season runs quick, I imagine it deserves an extended season. Regardless, I stay up for Wright’s future works given the impactful impression she made on this one.
Henchmen performs Basement Theatre Eighth-Twelfth August 2023
