Katie Finneran (right), in the title role of Adam Bock’s The Receptionist, sizes up Mr. Dart (Will Pullen), an unexpected visitor from the home office.
Adam Bock’s The Receptionist is a slippery workplace comedy that starts with a seemingly innocuous monologue by an unidentified male about his love of fishing, and then shifts to the workers in an office, where a Mr. Raymond (Nael Nacer, the monologuist) is unexpectedly late. Amid exchanges of personal gossip, the receptionist Beverly (Katie Finneran) and a supervisor, Lorraine (Mallori Johnson), receive a visitor from the “home office,” Martin Dart (Will Pullen), as they await Mr. Raymond’s return. Director Sarah Benson’s revival of Bock’s masterly piece sustains a sense of inconsequentiality, even as discordant notes pop up, until the play reveals itself as a chilling paradigm of what Hannah Arendt, in covering the trial of Adolf Eichmann in 1963, called “the banality of evil.”
The office that the design team dots has created is as ordinary as the characters: whirring machines, filing cabinets, coatrack, coffeemaker, desk, and Beverly’s telephone, which supplies the audience with all kinds of information. When Beverly is not answering the phone with a chirpy “Northeast Office,” she is yakking on it with friends. Before Lorraine arrives, Beverly is listening to her friend Cheryl Lynn describe a date with a married man. After Lorraine arrives and goes into her office, Beverly badmouths her:
Mallori Johnson (left) is Lorraine, a colleague of Mr. Raymond (Nael Nacer), in Bock’s dark workplace comedy-drama.
Sorry. That was Lorraine. She’s late. Again. It’s her bus. … I know. It’s always her bus. “My bus was late.”
But as soon as Lorraine reenters, announcing that she was out the previous night, Beverly ends the call with Cheryl Lynn to lend a sympathetic—and eager—ear to Lorraine’s news. The lovelorn Lorraine has been hurting from a breakup with a narcissistic boyfriend, Glen, and whining about gorgeous women on magazine covers:
How am I supposed—I mean look at her! She’s on the cover of a magazine. She’s perfect. She’s got someone! And they’re going to get married in Fiji … Fiji! Glen was supposed to … I give people the benefit of the doubt. I do. A guy comes up to me and says “I’m a good guy,” and I believe him! And then he isn’t!
But, on the night before, Lorraine’s friend Brenda persuaded her to go to a club, where Brenda hooked up with a pool cleaner named Tony:
So I was “Brenda, Glen’s here.” … And pool guy was “That Glen there? He’s a prick.” And I’m, “I don’t want to talk to pool guy about Glen, Brenda” and Brenda’s “His name’s not pool guy, it’s Tony.” And I’m “Brenda!” and I start crying.
Dart gets playful after Lorraine becomes flirtatious.
The anodyne office gossip about characters who never appear requires adroit delivery to keep one’s interest, and Finneran, renowned for award-winning comic turns in Noises Off and Promises, Promises, expertly judges just when to wring laughter and when to give weight to Beverly’s own tribulations: her husband, Bob, has just spent the money to pay their phone bill to add a teacup to their collection of hundreds. The chitchat also helps gloss over the red flags that pop up. A panicked Mrs. Raymond has been calling. And, amid all the distractions, Beverly tells Lorraine, “Something went wrong yesterday. With a client. Mr. Raymond came back to the office very upset.”
When Dart enters, it’s obvious that he sparks Lorraine’s interest, and Johnson shines in physical comedy as she swivels her body languorously to attract Dart’s attention. There’s a lovely bit of comic business as both chastely dance at each other. But Beverly notices and upbraids Lorraine:
Lorraine: I was just flirting.
Beverly: Loyalty is—Loyalty is important So important and sad when it’s gone. And dangerous and sad and dangerous to throw away. To just—
Lorraine: I’m not—I’m not being disloyal to anyone!
Beverly: You’re making him be! Disloyal to his wife!
Lorraine and Beverly share a private joke at the Northeast Office. Photographs by Joan Marcus.
That both women know right from wrong deepens the irony. When Raymond enters, he reveals the way that his previous day’s meeting with the “client” went wrong: “I broke his little finger. I thought that would do it. But …” The business of the Northeast Office is much more sinister than one expects. And Dart has arrived because Raymond’s commitment has gone soft. The truth is that all of them know what the Northeast Office does: “client” is a euphemism.
As the situation becomes clear, Bock speeds up the action. The characters, no matter how likable superficially, are trapped in a web of their own making. The Receptionist is an allegory about the way that ordinary people can become accustomed to evil. It’s essential viewing for these times.
The Second Stage production of Adam Bock’s The Receptionist runs through May 24 at the Pershing Square Signature Center (480 West 42nd St.). Evening performances are at 7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; matinees are at 2 p.m. Wednesday and Saturday (except for a 1 p.m. matinee on May 13). For tickets and more information, visit 2st.com.
