If Sartre wrote on Microsoft Office, he would have expanded on his maxim. Hell is other people crammed into an air-conditioned box inputting streams of data from a mountain of files that only ever get bigger.
Director Steve Marmion captures the near mania, the shifting alliances and bleak hierarchies that come with the nine-to-five and then adds, well, giant prawns for a start.
The three-strong team work under the yoke of tic-ridden Honey (Golda Rosheuvel) who, like her underlings, pays a psychological price for suppressing her starchy desires.
Marie (an eye-catching Robyn Addison), Only Joe (Simon Kunz) and Elvis (Shane Zaza) set themselves at the paperwork like cliffs against the sea only to crumble gently, and then explosively, against its relentless, towering might.
Marie takes on extra hours and finds herself in a twilight world of Tellytubby cleaning ladies (Joanna Holden), sleep deprivation and isolation where the barest human touch is enough to short her circuit board.
Meanwhile, Only Joe buries tears beneath splenetic banter and Elvis conjures surreal adventures to keep the outside world alive.
With nods to Dennis Potter and David Lynch, this is dark, comic and unnerving comedy, especially as the mania gathers pace and anguished souls turn the office into purgatory.
While there is little story to underpin these vignettes, there is plenty to enjoy in writer Ed Harris's capacious and pitch-black imagination.
– From July 2011
