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28 June 2006
Glide Time: A Review
by Corinne Simpson
"I love legitimate theatre." ~ Homer Simpson
I traveled from Wellington to Auckland with a theatre-ambivalent friend to see Silo Theatre's revival of Glide Time at the Maidment Theatre. I think abandoning the sideways rain and roiling clouds of Wellington made the opening line of the play that much more poignant for us. “Wellington, I HATE you.” Spoken by Craig Parker as John, seemingly blown in the door by the weather, hair dripping wet, umbrella inside out, and cold through to his bones - we could relate. It was a good omen for the remaining two plus hours. You can't go wrong with Craig Parker and Wellington jokes really. I mean not really.
Anybody who has ever worked in an office will appreciate the play on levels that the unemployed or, say, rural outdoor workers will never be able to, let's be honest. The set alone is a thing of staggering and terrible beauty. Constructed almost entirely out of mismatched and overstuffed metal filing cabinets stretching from floor to ceiling and rigidly conformist wooden desks and chairs, it's hard not to indulge in a Monday morning shudder of sympathy from the start. The lone window in the set is fringed by crooked blinds and pelted almost non-stop by rain outside. The light, of course, comes from the fluoro bulbs hanging overhead. The scene for ploddingly inefficient governmental paper shuffling is set. The characters are all recognizable - there's one of each in every office to one degree or another - the growly veteran who knows it all and couldn't care (Jim, played by Greg Johnson), the office clown and upstart (John, played by Craig Parker), the dependable and organized cheerful secretary (Beryl, played by Theresa Healey), the green and eager to please newbie (Michael, played by David Van Horn), the vaguely out of touch and near-to-retirement “boss” (Stuart Devenie), the overseas transplant with tales of how things were and the requisite needy wife (Hugh, played by Simon Prast), and of course the policy-driven and dedicatedly unhelpful building maintenance man (Wally, played by Colin Moy). Need I say more? I am taken back to no less than fourteen offices I worked in for varying terms. These roles are perfectly cast by Oliver Driver who directs this apparently veteran cast by letting these could-be stereotypes flourish in the care of their respective players as they are imbued with nuance, humor, and depth. The costumes help somewhat since Glide Time is set resolutely in the glorious (said with a dubious intonation) 70s. There isn't a single hiccup in the costuming and this may be a good or bad thing depending on your personal opinions regarding polyester and copious use of the colors brown and beige. Craig Parker even rocks a 70s “porno moustache” (yes, I named it that myself) to bring authenticity to a frightening level of realized success (peaking, it must be said, when he removes his polka-dotted brown tie and saucily runs it between his legs).
The set? Brilliantly effective. The costumes? Eerily vintage. The casting? Perfection. But is it any good? Hell yes. It's a good time out and there's no mistaking that. There are moments I wished it had been modernized to update the endless pop culture, political, and societal references that dominate conversations between the characters. I wonder what it would feel like set in a modern office - would it be too akin to Office Space in an update? Is that a bad thing? Nonetheless I understand the beauty of resurrecting a classic for a 30th anniversary show and keeping it devotedly nostalgic. It does feel dated but some of the humor really is enhanced by the aging factor. Things in retrospect are often much funnier. There are also moments where the laughter is hitched by the realization that nothing has really changed. This is an office story framed by metal files, polyester, and 70s references but that could be plucked from any workplace in any city on any given day. That sense of recognition, the knowing nod of remembering having those same discussions with your own colleague or of feeling the same stifling confinement at your own desk, gives it life. Glide Time is also gorgeously New Zealand which, to a Canadian who fell in love with Kiwiana and lives here entirely by choice, is a good thing. But for all it's authentic workplace observations and vintage humor, the power of the piece is in the drawing together of each seemingly scattered story arc. The characters each have something to say and a small journey to make and they do so in wonderfully errant human ways. This is a play that understands ordinary people and the circumstances that drive or crush them. The actors all revel in their roles, alternately coaxing humor and emotion from their situations with ease.
It is the experienced nature of the cast that saved the performance I watched, in truth. The second half had a span of ten very bad minutes which, from a theatrical point of view, was horrible and, from an audience point of view, was unintentionally hilarious. When John picked up several bottles of beer to distribute to his coworkers in an end scene, one of the bottles broke (as bottles are wont to do) and doused Craig Parker and the floor of the set in amber liquid. Recovering beautifully, Craig ad libbed to Theresa Healey's line of “I will have a beer, actually. I've changed my mind” with a smart “Are you sure? There's not much left.” Brilliant! And when Jim finally emerges from the dark cloud of losing his marriage and the chance at promotion to berate his departing boss and generally rail against company policies, poor Greg Johnson's trouser fly was open. The audience (who were really old enough to keep straighter faces) found the misfortune incredibly amusing and the non-comedic monologue was interrupted by ill-placed merriment. Greg weathered it stoically and then managed, against all odds, to pull the entire audience back into the depth of Jim's upset and outrage and thus back into the mood and climax of the play itself. Only a true pro can command such attention and direct an audience with such a knowing hand. Kudos to him.
Kudos to them all! Glide Time, while not a perfect theatrical experience, was definitely an enjoyable one. I felt like I'd traveled back in time and come through a bout at a really awful job where the people at least had a good sense of humor about things and made it inexplicably fun. Craig Parker's harakiri with the Japanese calculator manual, for an example, and the almost-ballet-like hilarity of the card-signing scene, for another. I'd recommend it for the nostalgic value, for the monstrously attractive set, and above all for the talented actors who breathe it all to beige-toned life. | | |