WORK,BUT THIS TIME LIKE YOU MEAN IT by Honor Webster-Mannison.
Directed by Luke Rogers. Set and
costume designer Kathleen Kershaw.
Lighting and video designer Ethan Hamill. Sound designer and
composer Patrick Haesler. Production
stage manager Rhiley Winnett. Canberra Youth Theatre. Courtyard Studio.
Canberra Theatre Centre.September 20-29 2024.
Reviewed by Peter Wilkins
Youth theatre tends to be most successful when it speaks with the voice of its young writers and directors under the guidance and mentorship of professional theatre artists. Canberra’s professionally funded Canberra Youth Theatre has earned a prestigious reputation as a company of dynamic, highly relevant and professionally staged theatre. Canberra Youth Theatre’s latest production by its senior ensemble is no exception. Playwright of WORK, BUT THIS TIME LIKE YOU MEAN IT and winner of Canberra Youth Theatre’s 2022 Emerging Playwright’s Commission Honor Webster-Mannison takes a sharpshooting shot at the employment of young people in the fast food industry. Fast is the word. In fact frenetic may be more like it. Under Luke Roger’s energetic direction, the hard working ensemble explodes with vitality. Shift manager (Tom Bryson) is positively apoplectic as he tries to organize his staff. Register One (Kathleen Dunkerley) and register Two (Emma Piva) perform their cute welcome routine with robotic precision. At the same time newcomer on Kiosk (Georgie Bianchini) and Quinn Goodwin on the Drive Through try to maintain some control. Food prepper (Sterling Notley) and Deep Fryer (Matthew Hogan) keep the yellow balls on Kathleen Kershaw’s colourful set flying like projectile beef burger bun missiles through the air across the stage and into the hands of the frazzled worker. Only Regular (Hannah Cornelia) offers some sense of normality apart from the obvious craving addiction fed on fat and sugar I suspect. Too often she becomes lost upstage in the mayhem when subtlety and nuance are sacrificed for speed and noise.
Webster-Mannison has written a very clever, witty, surreal satire, punctuated by hilarious video design with finger-licking good animation and burger bounce along lyrics. The play draws on the experiences of young people and the conditions of working for a corporate franchise in the fast food industry. It exposes the unfair conditions, the short work breaks, the bullying bosses and the relationships that lead to workplace relationships. Anyone who has worked for Maccers or KFC will recognize Webster-Mannison’s characters. Food Prep’s workplace accident is no rare occurrence and the young employees work for low wages at the mercy of Bianchini’s moustached Texan owner (no surprises there). Director Rogers ensures that the play’s message is not lost when Notley assumes the imaginary role of Union Rep for young employees. It is a call for the rights of the exploited. Webster-Mannison’s play becomes a manifesto for proper regulations and recognition of just working conditions in an industry heavily reliant on the labour of young people under the age of eighteen, underpaid, overworked and under-represented.
WORK, BUT THIS TIME LIKE YOU MEAN IT is the kind of work that one might expect from a youth theatre concerned about the welfare and rights of its young emerging artists. The company bursts with talent and promise. Webster-Mannison and Rogers avoid the didactic and get their message across with comedy and carefully choreographed stage business. The introduction of more effective moments of stillness and introspection like Notley’s proposed Union monologue and the direct address by Bryson to the audience might have given useful pause for thought.
Photos by Andrew Sikorski
