What a great outer office with its very expensive paneled walls and elegant reception desk. The receptionist is busy fielding calls, routing them to voice mail, and, when not busy, talking to her errant husband and girlfriends. Everything is so normal. We soon find that all this opulence supports a branch office of only three people.
Cygnet Theater's west-coast premiere of Adam Bock's The Receptionist starts, not in the outer office of the Northeast Office, but with the boss, Mr. Edward Raymond, played by Dale Morris, explaining the finer points of fishing and, of more importance, the morality of catching fish and throwing them back. It is an interesting prologue with deeper meaning.
In the office is receptionist Beverly Wilkins (Melinda Gilb), who fields calls, gossips with friends and chastises her husband, Bob. It is all so mundane. Lorraine Taylor (Jo Anne Glover), who is perennially late for work, has one of the two offices and an undefined job. Her love life is in a constant shambles. The two small-talk it for some time. Just a normal morning before the crush of business begins, except at Northeast Office there doesn't seem to be a crush of business.
Enter Martin Dart (Sean Cox) in search of Mr. Raymond, who is very late today. In a lighthearted incongruity, Ms. Taylor banters and flirts with the home office guy. Hmm. Worse yet, he flirts back rather broadly. It gets a bit silly. Adam Bock did not give Lorraine Taylor a convincing character. Hole one in the script.
When Dart steps out, Mr. Raymond enters. It is here that this reviewer stops with the plot narrative and moves on to the actors. Gilb's one-sided conversations have been heard in almost any office anywhere. The interplay between her and Glover is equally convincing just a very normal office. Morris plays a quite loveable chap. Well, at least until we get to know Mr. Raymond. Cox, too, plays a seemingly charming guy...but he is from home office. Every home office expects his branches to be very efficient and productive with no slip-ups.
As we expect at Cygnet, the sound designer, George Ye, and lighting designer, Eric Lotze, maintain their usual excellence. Set designer Sean Fanning created an elegant area for this production.
Admittedly Bock's script, though loved by the New York critics, is not airtight. I suspended logic and went with the occasionally Swiss-cheese-riddled script. I enjoyed the build, the two faces of each character. I even enjoyed the strange logic of the ending. It is a 80-minute ride on friendly streets and dark mysterious country lanes. That darkness ensures conversation all of the way home.
