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Caroline Nash as Rachel and Oli Leonard as Sean Calling for Help
Mac Birmingham
**** ANYONE who has
ever been told all
our advisers/experts/whatever are busy
and that your call is
important to us, over and over
as the will to live slowly evaporates, knows
the frustration of call centres. If calling them is throwing a chunk of your life
into a black hole of random music and inane assurances until an actual
person answers, then imagine what it is like on the other end of the
phone. Rachel is a team leader of a sales team selling
Perfect Kitchens, among other things, dealing with complaints – of which
there are many, and problems, all the while exuding confidence and
enthusiasm. Sean is her daughter’s unemployed boyfriend given
a job in the sales team by Rachel to help him along. Sean is as about as
suited to telesales as King Herod was to child-minding. Caroline Nash is an engaging Rachel, greeting the
audience as they come in for their ‘induction’ day with half a dozen
unsuspecting souls given roles as members of the team and called up at
random intervals for comments or, in the case of Terry, blast with a
water pistol, and you don’t get more interactive than that. Sutton Coldfield’s Oli Leonard’s Sean is just the opposite. He doesn’t want to be there, has all the enthusiasm of a drying puddle and just wants to be a fireman. Rachel generates a 1950’s Hi Di Hi atmosphere,
jollying everyone along, with prizes for first sale of the day,
inspiring music, employee of the month – all the trivial trappings of telesales
recognisable to anyone who has ever seen a teleselling floor in full swing. Enter new American owner Randall B Hitchcock, never seen or heard but with a pervading presence worthy of Mordor, and all changes.
Randy embraces the current modern management idea that if staff are happy, even just a little bit, then those in charge are doing something wrong. Staff have to live in permanent fear of their job. Rules and duties have to be changed regularly to keep people on their toes, while sales targets have to be raised to always keep them just out of reach, while staff numbers have to be regularly culled. The MBA mantra is that if you cut costs, i.e.
staff, you increase profits and to achieve that then the staff left have to work harder to compensate for those ‘let go’ as management
jargon has it. Which means comfort breaks become anything but at a
maximum of three minutes, and black marks are earned for minor
transgressions such as being a minute late - two black marks means being
‘let go’. It is all too much for Rachel who is reduced to
the ranks back on the phones, but Sean, now soon to be a dad with
Rachel’s daughter Holly, awakens a slumbering Slowly he becomes the manager from hell, the
earthly incarnation of the commands issued by Randy on high. The call centre’s
superhero far from helping people is relentlessly driving them. Sackings
and injustice abound as slowly work and home life collapse around him.
Sean is now living in his mother-in-law’s house,
with girlfriend Holly, mother of baby Amy, vanished to stay with a
friend, and rock bottom is slowly being reached as Hitchcock automates
the call centre and everyone is ‘let go’ with Sean, able to stomach it
any longer, following his team out of the door, hating himself and hated
by the people who worked under him. By the end no one worked for him. Writers Liz John and Julia Wright have skillfully added layer after layer as the opening scene of out and out comedy from the clever, and wickedly accurate portrayal of telesales slowly becomes a very human drama about relationships, post-natal depression, naked ambition and life. There is the love of a child from a grandparent and from a father, both very different yet both trying their best in their own ways in what cannot be an easy relationship; a mother living in the same house as her daughter's boyfriend, the father of her daughter's baby, while daughter Holly has run off to a friend leaving them to bring up Amy between them. And then there is Amy,a baby
Those seeking an
everyone living happily ever after
ending will be disappointed – life is rarely like that – but Rachel and
Sean do reach
agreements and understandings and, finally, a contentment of sorts. If not
exactly satisfied with their lot, Rachel and Sean at least accept it . .
. almost; Sean is still determined to be a fireman. Directed by Jonathan
Legg, Calling for Help
runs to 09-04-16 Roger Clarke 08-04-16 Future dates: 14th & 15th April 8.00pm, The Playhouse, Clare Street, Northampton NN1 3JA - 01604 627791; 16th April 8.00pm, Upstairs at the Western, Leicester LE3 0GA - www.upstairsatthewestern.com; 22nd April 8.00pm, Evesham Arts Centre WR11 4QH - 01386 446944; 27th April 8.00pm, The Angles, Wisbech PE13 1HQ - 01945 474447; 28th April 8.00pm, Market Harborough Theatre LE16 7NB - www.oxboffice.com; 29th April 8.00pm, Artrix, Bromsgrove B60 1PQ - 01527 577330
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despot deep inside him to
try to make something of himself, and provide for his family, pushing to take over
as team manager.