Simona Hamer    

All OK

Year of writing: 2019
»I am pretending to be working. That’s work, too.«
Total cast size: 9 (5 f, 4 m)

grown-ups

drama
void, absence of life’s meaning, current social picture of the world, conformism, resisting traditional ways of living and thinking, career

FROM SLAVKO GRUM AWARD JURY'S JUSTIFICATION: All OK is a play about a staff team attending a mandatory non-mandatory social event which is supposed to shape the members into a homogenous and tightly-knit team, an efficient work machine with replaceable parts. To achieve this, they spend some time which can hardly be called working time, but nevertheless, time when absence isn’t an option, in an escape room. A lot happens there: the group needs to solve riddles and the incompetent caretaker causes a blackout. Some of the team members start their Friday night festivities during these extended working hours. They exaggerate in consumption escalating the already tense situation. There is a solid hierarchy amongst the co-workers, their superiors and the owners of the start-up company. The pecking order is determined but unstable and these intense circumstances stir up some (old) rivalries. Furthermore, the escape game reveals a hidden side of its participants: some see themselves as losers, others think they are much stronger winners than they’re perceived to be. But all of them have something to hide and feel guilty for being at work, so to speak, whilst they’re being expected at home where, in turn, they feel they’re not as active as they should be and that is due to all of them being overworked. This turbulent company is highlighted in All OK by three outsiders: the escape room event manager, the cleaner and a former caretaker who all have their own views on team-building exercises, and on the behaviour of locked-up groups in search of a way out.

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For the author's contact please write to sigledal@gmail.com.

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Awards, nominations, shortlists and recommendations

Nomination for Slavko Grum Award

The play is written in a dynamic tempo, sharp lines are being exchanged amongst the staff team. Their subjugated realm of thought is articulated in a distinctly modern language, with the coolest guys using a multitude of English words. English being the only cool language for cool guys. With this, All OK outlines the edges of the world where everyone is a little overworked, tense and full of anxieties, all of which is, of course, covered up by smiles meant to represent their best form and successful results. The play probes various situations in our brave modern world and shows how hopeless they turn out to be when examined from up close and within.

2020

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