Contractions by Mike Bartlett

October 13 – 31, 2015
Time: 1pm (doors at 12.50pm)

Bewley’s Cafe Theatre is reconfigured by designer Aedin Cosgrove as the chairs for the audience line the perimeter of the four walls with one or two utilitarian tables sporadically placed in front of them. In the central void is placed a nondescript chair in front of a manager’s desk with a laptop situate on it. There is another office chair at a distance facing the desk. A nameless manager is seated behind the desk and Emma, a newish employee in sales, has been summoned to her office. After just about polite preliminaries, Emma is asked to read clause 5 of her contract. It states that an employee is not permitted to have a sexual or romantic relationship with another employee without informing the company. The manager goes to considerable lengths to ensure that Emma understands the full import of Clause 5 as interpreted by the employer. The manager demonstrates from the beginning a stony demeanour which is reminiscent of another great bloodless fictional creation Mrs.Danvers in Daphne du Maurier’s “Rebecca”. She and the corporate employer have power over Emma. Amorally and monstrously she misuses that power. In this deeply unequal contest Bartlett manages to create a great deal of humour while never losing site of the torment that Emma has to endure at the hands of her manager. At all times the manager appears to operate, just, within the terms of the contract. It is an Orwellian world.

Danielle Galligan as Emma and Aisling O’Mara as the manager are remarkably similar in appearance and their clothing is almost identical. These similarities of appearance cloak initially the difference in the power which each has. As the manager seeks to get her way nothing is too inhumane to be required of Emma. The logic of her demands seems perhaps understandable initially but like Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”, the horror of her demands are revealed. Bartlett has written a satire of some note in relation to managerial life in a corporation. Annabelle Comyn directs Galligan and O’Mara to deliver a humane and inhumane performance.

This is the first production of Compass Theatre Ireland who are two first year graduates (Alan Mahon and Rhys Dunlop) from the Lir. They are to be congratulated in placing this searching play about the abuse of corporate power at a managerial level before an Irish audience. They demonstrate a pursuit of excellence both in their choice of play and in the calibre of the team chosen in order to realise it on stage. It is an impressive debut.

Cast and Crew: Danielle Galligan and Aisling O’Mara
Director: Annabelle Comyn
Set and lighting designer: Aedin Cosgrove
Sound Designer: Ivan Birthistle
Costume Designer: Sinead Cuthbert
Assistant set and light designer: Hanna Bo
Assistant sound designer: John Gunning
Stage Mangaer: Soazig Metrope
Deputy Stage Manager: Jude Barriscale
Producer: Alan Mahon
Associate producer: Rhys Dunlop