If we take Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s 2015 off-Broadway hit Gloria as an accurate satirical reflection of the contemporary American white-collar workplace—and much of the critical praise heaped on it insists we should—the new normal in cubicleland is cynical solipsism, unfocused ambition, and millennial entitlement. Gone entirely, at least in the office of the unnamed New York magazine where the play is set, are collegiality, decorum, purpose, and any semblance of work ethic. Everyone just wants to get ahead without knowing what getting ahead might look like.
But the forces that create a market for trauma porn—and Jacobs-Jenkins’s uncomplicated criticisms of them—have nothing to do with the state of the American white-collar workplace. If the horror unfolded at a bowling alley or an auto-body shop—or a happy, collegial publishing co-op, for that matter—the results might easily be the same. Jacobs-Jenkins starts one play and finishes another, leaving neither adequately developed.
Through 2/19: Wed 7:30 PM, Thu 2 and 8 PM, Fri 8 PM, Sat 2 and 8 PM, Sun 2 and 7:30 PM (2 PM only 2/19); also Tue 2/7, 7:30 PM, Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn, 312-443-3800, goodmantheatre.org, $26-$65.
