Review of Loft Theatre Company production of Contractions (2011)

It’s nearly three decades since 1984 and we’ve outlived the fears inspired by George Orwell’s visionary appraisal of a nightmare future.

Or have we?

Today it’s the faceless world of corporate management and the puppet-strings control it exerts on hapless workers. This biting satire transcends the gap between Orwellian fantasy and a modern age of dehumanisation.

Through a series of confrontations between a manager and an employee, we see normal humanity being relentlessly drained away into a sea of logistics. Mike Bartlett’s two-hander play carries a rich seam of bleak humour so that we smile – albeit uneasily – at the oft-repeated management mantra about duty to care for employees’ welfare. And at the same time we agonise for Emma, the young woman caught in a vicious spiral of company manipulation.

Sue Moore’s direction is tight, tough and riveting, but there are touches of quiet subtlety that cleverly enhance the ambivalent nature of the people involved and the situation they are facing. The dialogue is for the most part splendidly cutting but for me the play’s points have been chillingly made while keeping a strong grip on credibility. Later events take us into a realm of deliberate exaggeration, including the use of a cardboard box clearly under-sized for its purpose, and the impact is somewhat lessened.

But the chance to savour Ann Williams’ crisp, edgy and nameless manager doling out company policy messages with robotic indifference and Esther Riggs heart-breakingly deteriorating from bright, career-conscious young woman to desensitised company statistic is magical theatre indeed. These are stunning performances.

And all in the space of 55 memorable minutes.

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Peter McGarry is an experienced, independent professional theatre critic who has agreed to review Loft Theatre Company productions.

The agreement with the Loft is that Peter is free to express his opinions for good or ill. The Loft Theatre Company has no control whatsoever over the content of these reviews and will never comment publicly on what he writes.