Employment Contract /2011

EMPLOYMENT CONTRACT based on Mike Bartlett's Contractions, Nicosia – Cyprus

In 2012 Fresh Target Theatre in co-production with Paravan Proactions,  presented a site-specific version of the black comedy Employment Contract inspired by Mike Bartlett's Contractions. Employment Contract is a play that deals with the increasing invasion of big companies into their employees' privacy. In this allegoric satire a big corporation contractually bans and controls any kind of romantic relationships between its employees. 

Emma, from sales, is in love with a colleague, Darren, who works in the same department as her. However this, according to her Manager, constitutes a breach of her contract of employment according to which employees should declare any ‘romantic or sexual relationships, activities or acts’ in their work environment. Across fourteen scenes averaging a little over five minutes each, we observe the Manager’s intrusion into Emma’s life and the latter’s gradual compliance with the established corporate etiquette.

The play took place on the second floor of a new modern building that hosts a multinational consultancy firm in Nicosia (RAI building). The space was arranged so as to resemble a corporation’s meeting room, and the audience watched the play as members of the company’s board sitting around a big purpose-build conference table. The creative team designed all the marketing materials of a fictitious company (C) (TV corporate recruitment advertisement, logos, letterheads, folders, writing material etc) so as to make the experience for the audience as 'real' as possible.