"I am the master of my fate," famously wrote Victorian poet William Ernest Henley. "I am the captain of my soul." But what about God? Or reality television? Or even a combination of the two? Who's really pulling the strings? Richard Dresser's new play Trouble Cometh goes down a rabbit hole of scenarios in a time when success is a cynical construction, eternal vows are to be negotiated, and language is a tactical weapon.
San Francisco Playhouse is presenting the world premiere of Trouble Cometh in a handsome production that genuinely surprises as the truth comes out in a spectacular reveal that, by its very nature, may not really be revealing the truth. To say more about the resolution would be an unconscionable spoiler.
Dresser's play is set alternately in a conference room at a soulless television production company and a trendy restaurant where the characters repair for post-work socializing. Dennis is a mid-level executive from the Mamet school of management who keeps his new associate in a perpetual state of unbalance. The newly hired Joe, long out of work, is desperately eager to please as the two face a looming deadline for a new reality-TV series. It's pretty much do-or-die, according to Dennis, who himself lives in fear of those on the forbidding 11th floor. Kelly, an office assistant, is powerfully seductive, while Susan, Joe's fiancee, is a joyless nag who somehow wrangled the new job for her beau.
"Let's tweak that part about forsaking all others," says Joe, as he discusses their coming marriage vows with Susan. Dresser is often playing with the malleability of language and belief, demonstrating how words and ideas can be sliced and diced into an acceptable truthiness. Dennis declares that fruitful negotiations with his superiors are underway, even if they are "not yet up to the level of words." When Dennis proposes that rape be part of the reality-show concept, Joe draws a line in the sand. Murder is the acceptable compromise.
It's all amusing, clever, disturbing, and vaguely surreal, and these tones have been captured in director May Adrales' finely detailed production. Nina Ball's ingenious set becomes a breakout star of the production after serving as an efficient means of quickly changing scenes punctuated with sharp musical cues from sound designer Theodore J.H. Hulsker. Tatjana Genser's costumes also vividly communicate each character's self-perceived status �" something that radically changes before the play's end.
The cast expertly inhabits those costumes, perhaps none more evocatively than Liz Sklar as the dressed-to-kill Kelly, a role she plays with mesmerizing flair. As Joe, the wannabe power player, Kyle Cameron is a delightful mess of insecurities, selfishness, ambition, and lust. Patrick Russell is scarily mercurial as Dennis, the demanding boss, and Marissa Keltie is comically dour as bride-to-be Susan. Nandita Shenoy crisply offers an unexpected surprise as a high-level executive far outside the corporate mold.
In many ways, Trouble Cometh mirrors the themes of another SF Playhouse world premiere, last year's Ideation by Aaron Loeb, in which a management team of tangled allegiances grows aware that they are being played by unseen forces. These are plays coming from a society of increasingly cynical savvy, when the proof of dissembling in high places can be transmitted worldwide with the touch of a button. We are masters of our fate only as far as we are allowed to be. It's an uneasy notion, but Trouble Cometh illustrates it with smart, dark humor.
Trouble Cometh will run at San Francisco Playhouse through June 27. Tickets are $20-$120. Call (415) 677-9596 or go to sfplayhouse.org.