Imagine the sturdy films about workplace mundanity and absurdity, “Clerks” and “Office Space” filtered through George Orwell’s “1984,” and you might have a glancing idea of what David Jacobi is going for in “Mai Dang Lao,” now in a world premiere with Sideshow Theatre Company under Marti Lyons’ able direction.
The title, which refers to the Chinese name for “McDonald’s,” is set during the late shift at a fast-food restaurant in a nameless outpost of exurban America. Jacobi apparently based his story on several real incidents in which someone purporting to be local law enforcement called up fast-food joints, claiming that a female employee was suspected of theft or drug smuggling and demanding that management conduct strip searches of the “offender.”
But despite its real-life roots, Jacobi’s play feels increasingly forced as events escalate. It works best in its early stages as a portrait of the conflicts between petty management types, such as Matt Fletcher’s Roy and LaNisa Renee Frederick’s Kara, and couldn’t-care-less wage slaves Sophie (Sarah Price), who tells everyone she’s quitting to become a veterinarian, and stoner Mike (Andrew Goetten), the king of the drive-thru window. Stuck in the middle is high-strung Nancy (Tyler Meredith), who is being groomed for a low-level management position, despite her tendency to retreat underneath the tables whenever the situation grows tense.
Jim Poole, as the offstage voice of the “officer” in charge of investigating theft allegations against Price’s sassy Sophie, is suitably creepy and insinuating. But I had a hard time believing skeptical Sophie would stand for a minute of the treatment dished out by Roy and Kara — or that Goetten’s Mike, impaired though he is, wouldn’t wise up to what’s going on behind the locked manager’s office door and demand answers.
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Lyons’ staging shows a deft hand at anatomizing the petty grievances that loom large in service-sector work. But the larger points that Jacobi tries to make about how willing we all are to turn a blind eye to injustice and suspicion feel as if they’ve lingered too long under the heat lamps, rendering them limp and flavorless.
REVIEW: “Mai Dang Lao”
2 STARS
Through April 10 in the Victory Gardens Richard Christiansen Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave.; $20-$30 at 773-871-3000 or sideshowtheatre.org
Kerry Reid is a freelance critic.