Mara Nelson-Greenberg’s Absurd Office Pranks Hide Mens’ Emotional Problems

by Lynne Stevens

Do we have to accept that there are still so many creeps in the workplace? Do we really need to be reminded how immature some men in today’s office culture are?

Mara Nelson-Greenberg shows us men at a debt collection agency acting like incorrigible junior high boys who have zero empathy for their women co-workers. They harass women on their way to the restroom. These are really bad guys. No joke.

Nelson-Greenberg’s play, promoted as a dark comedy, gets a few laughs but the jokes fade fast. These guys still guffaw about body parts. Their lack of empathy quickly turns dangerous.

Earnest Sofia (Sam Jackson), hired by HQ as an Empathy Coach, is in over her head. She needs to succeed at this job and thinks she can re-train these toxic guys. Sofia tackles the rude guys rationally, but she is unprepared for their misogynistic displays. Talk about a toxic work place! The inmates are running the asylum.  Although Sofia tries to be compassionate in that primitive setting, she really should call them on their bad behavior!

Nervous Eva (linda maria  girón ) uses a squeaky, little girl voice because she cannot stand up to the men’s frightening harassment. Girón’s Eva is too comically polite to make waves. She refuses to resist.

Skeptical boss Jon (Joseph O’Malley) with his threatening golf club, has wonderful rubbery body language. His leering, hovering presence makes him a mini-Trump, both a personal menace and political madman. Always time for a round of golf. Never enough time to sympathize with someone else’s point of view.

Angry, volatile Howie (Max Forman-Mullin) keeps a baseball bat handy as a weapon. Howie yells outrageously at debtors on the phone, and throws his body around the stage like a giant baby. Howie threatens phone clients and office women alike. And we are talking about piddling amounts of money. $48? Demeaning, rude, and self-dealing just like someone high up we read about every day.

Pretty soon Sofia is wearing a dress, prompted by sexist boss Jon. She’s trying too hard to get the boys to cooperate but she’s just fueling their testosterone. Sofia undergoes subtle changes, well rendered by Jackson.

Zany co-worker Jordan (Phil Wong) calls himself an artiste, but thinks empathy is a bird. Another nut case. Every character has some cathartic tale to tell in their attempts to identify empathy. His attempts at empathy are all about HIM—like you know who!

This absurd comedy is so ridiculous, and the physical comedy so amusing, that I could almost give it a pass. But all the disparaging things against women, the outspoken lechery and rudeness, tell us that these men have not evolved.

Do I feel anger! You bet I do. An hour and forty-five minutes of this schoolboy stuff is too much. This is the stuff substitute teachers are expected to deal with. The play’s #MeToo point is crucial, but fails to take flight, even with a surprise ending and some very fine acting.

“Do You Feel Anger?” by Mara Nelson-Greenberg, directed by Becca Wolff, costumes by Fatima Yahyaa, scenic design by Randy Wong- Westbrooke, lighting by Ray Oppenheimer, sound by Matt Stine, at Marin Theatre, Mill Valley, California. Info: marintheatre.org – to June 29, 2025.

Cast: Sam Jackson, linda maria girón, Joseph Patrick O’Malley, Max Forman-Mullin, Phil Wong, Jesse Caldwell, and Atosa Babaoff.

Banner photo: Jon (Joseph Patrick O’Malley), Jordan (Phil Wong), and Howie (Max Forman-Mullin) laugh as Sofia (Sam Jackson) watches. Photos: David Allen