Charming romp a cure for under-30 office drudgery
The perennial question of how to get young people to go to the theatre has a relatively simple answer — put young people on stage and tell their stories. I don’t mean stories about valuable lessons young people learn from their grandparents or stories about gen-Xers struggling with the fallout of their over- privileged upbringings, but stories that resonate now.
Stationary: A Recession-Era Musical, which is running until May 2 at the Cultch Historic Theatre, is that kind of show. The book by Vancouver playwright, musician and actor Christine Quintana, last seen perched in a high nook for the Arts Club’s Saint Joan, Mishelle Cuttler and Brian Cochrane revels in modern ennui with jokes about faux rustic weddings, Pinterest and that familiar fear that your pop culture references have begun to date you.
Of course, you don’t have to be under 30 to get the message of this charming, compact musical romp. Anyone who’s done time as an office drone will tell you that there are certain fantasies that take over your brain, offering a respite from the seemingly unending day-to-day drudgery.
Stationary fulfils one of my personal favourites from my own time as a receptionist: that daily life would occasionally break into Broadway-style song and dance numbers complete with live musicians.
The wonderfully realistic set by Lauchlin Johnston is peopled by an ensemble of office archetypes — the ingenue at the front desk (played by Quintana), the cutthroat go-getter, the chipper young recruit who wants so badly to be liked that he can’t say no.
But Stationary isn’t a Dilbert comic or a rehash of the 1999 cult classic Office Space — rather than allowing them to remain stereotypes, each of the ensemble gets their own interior moment written with just enough sincerity, even the horrible boss.
Their enemy isn’t so much greed or a fear of selling out, but the intense pressure that comes from entering the workforce with crushing debt, collapsing opportunities and skyrocketing housing prices. The recession may technically be over and our budgets tenuously balanced but that doesn’t mean things are less complicated.
Stationary doesn’t offer any easy answers, but it does end with a hint of hope that things might somehow get better if you can just make it to tomorrow.