Stressful Emergency Situation is a new show from the Dinner Ladies Collective, playing at the Etcetera Theatre as part of Camden Fringe.
It’s set at the time of a supposed apocalypse, or, in the words of fire marshal Angie, “mayhem”, that has left four people from one company locked on the top floor of the building for a very strange sleepover.
Margaret, Linda, and Sarah are the workers whose weekend safety briefing takes an unsettling turn in this blackly comic drama. They each have something to do outside of work but Angie has left their phones downstairs, the door is locked, and everything is on a “need to know” basis.
Rosie Grace (who also plays Margaret) directs this funny, disquieting and occasionally uneven play. We have all experienced the office politics at play here – dialled up considerably by Kitty Seth-Smith as Angie.
Whether she is seriously managing a critical situation or playing a twisted game is never quite made clear. There are recorded songs of the 1950s chirpy type that play at key moments, lulling the workers into a sense of almost cult-like security.
Sarah (Deirbhile Cunningham) and Linda (Beri Kahane) are the ones most settled at home. Sarah’s Shep (boyfriend, not dog) is the perfect partner, while Linda is planning a family with her wife, Jess.
The conversations are often light and impersonal, as you might expect from work friends, but start to delve deeper as Angie explores “personal trauma” and starts to be bluntly cruel.
Devised by the group, with fifth member Vika Adler – and rewritten for four characters after she had to step back from the show – Stressful Emergency Situation is packed with dry asides, awkward interactions, and professional office jargon.
With just one pager low on battery, Angie begins to manipulate and mould the group, making those musical numbers almost cultish. It still remains unclear whether Angie has orchestrated the situation out of pure malice, or whether she feels these three are worth saving.
On the top floor of a massive skyscraper during the end of the world doesn’t sound a safe place to be. At one point, I was wondering whether Angie’s overactive imagination was hallucinating that these women were with her. I left not entirely sure.
Stressful Emergency Situation is a provoking show that will make you laugh, uneasily. It’s clear that the Collective have an easy bond when developing and performing a show, and that’s a great blueprint for future work.
Because this one has moments I am still trying to organise in my mind, I’m giving it 3.5*.
Stressful Emergency Situation is part of this year’s Camden Fringe to 30 Aug.