Anyone who has been laid off in the past year should definitely make time to see Big Boys, a production by Next Act Theater. You know how awful it is to be unemployed. But it must be better than working for someone like the play's ultimate "Bad Boss," Victor Burlington.
As the play begins in Victor's sumptuous, spacious corporate office, he is joyfully soaking in his status. He is successful beyond words and if you don't believe it, he'll remind you. He's self-satisfied, grandiose and maybe a bit paranoid. He holds all the cards, and he knows it. Into his office walks a job applicant named Norman. Meek, insecure and deferential (to a point), Norman desperately wants a job with Victor's company. Victor seems uninterested in Norman's job qualifications. Instead, he rattles off some details about his own past, which includes eight wives (this may be an exaggeration who knows?) and an undefined number of children, "since the ones I didn't have committed won't tell me where they live."
Once he gets back to the subject of his interview, he tells Norman to "prove he's alive." After a few failed attempts, Norman slaps himself and says, "Ow." This seems to please Victor, and he hires Norman on the spot.
In the following scenes, Norman's inherent decency, integrity and honesty are put to the test. Meanwhile, Victor demonstrates his insensitivity. For instance, he asks Norman to finish a last-minute report over Thanksgiving weekend, only to leave the report lying unread on his desks for weeks afterwards. But this is the least of Norman's problems. By the end of Act I, he pulls out three notes and reads them to Victor: his fiancee dumps him, his parents disinherit him and even worse his cable company is reducing service and increasing the monthly bill. Dejected, Norman decides that nice guys really do finish last. He vows to become another Victor.
What makes this play work is more than capitalism gone amok. Orloff, the playwright, deliberately puts certain key elements in vague terms. For instance, Victor can't recall what his company actually makes. Norman refers to his office nemesis only as "the new guy." When merger negotiations force Victor and Norman to join forces, they create "plan x" that Norman delivers to "the other guys." The audience is left to fill in the blanks.
Both David Cecsarini (Victor) and Norman Moses (Norman) are well-primed for this kind of foolishness. They create a corporate nightmare riddled with sight gags (the cleverest of which involves a block of concrete) and one-liners. The play ends as improbably as it begins. Norman, who admits at one point in Act II that "I find it hard to be an asshole with conviction," is left alone to reconfigure the company's moral compass.
This lighthearted spoof is well-timed, unfortunately, with current events. It is also the perfect antidote to take the chill off of January's wintry temperatures. Director Mary MacDonald Kerr never lets the actors get off-balance, no matter how ridiculous their antics become. The two actors play so naturally off each other that it looks as though no direction was needed which may be the perfect compliment to MacDonald Kerr.
The production is further enhanced by Rick Rasmussen's set, which shows huge smokestacks belching smoke outside of Victor's large office windows. The innovative lighting of same smokestacks comes courtesy of Michael Van Dreser. The pre-show "music" prepares audiences by including brief audio snippets from the film, "Wall Street."
Watching Big Boys is a lot of fun. But some audience members - those downsized by corporate America also may rethink their options.
