By Adam Rafferty
Written by Melbourne Theatre Company NEXT STAGE Fellow Jean Tong, Do Not Pass Go is a workplace drama that thanks to its title conjures the idea of work being like going ‘directly to jail’.
We open on the first day of the job for Flux (Ella Prince) a character whose name literally describes the state of their gender identity, as they meet the uptight Penny (Belinda McClory) at a non-descript factory where their work involves various packing, sorting and dispatching jobs. Trimming ribbons, cutting shapes out of paper and sorting miniature Christmas trees, the work’s purpose is largely indecipherable, which is essentially the point.
What purpose can we take from our work when it feels so unimportant and meaningless? In Do Not Pass Go, it’s the relationships that are formed that can perhaps offer true meaning.
Penny’s neurotic temperament, which causes her to want things done a particular way, is at total odds with Flux’s relaxed, casual demeanour. The pair are quite the odd couple, not just because of a generational divide. Penny finds Flux’s gender queerness confusing, while Flux is quick to point out that Penny’s behaviour is probably symptomatic of ADHD and encourages her to seek therapy to diagnose and treat it.
Of course, these differences lead to discomfort between the two at first, but they quickly find a sympatico that frees up conversations that will have profound impacts on both their lives. Penny’s point of view regarding the possible over-diagnosis of conditions today, making them so common as to be the ‘normal’ state of being is a fascinating point of view. While the financial pressures upon Flux to maintain this source of income, despite the mundane nature of the work, in order to receive the gender-affirming surgery they long for, is painted in empathetic and truthful detail. Flux’s guilty pleasure of wastefully buying addictive blind-boxed toys when they know they have a savings goal to meet is an entirely identifiable habit.
Direction from Katy Maudlin deftly draws the humanity and comedy out of the piece but does force the audience into the banality of this workplace for a bit too long. McClory is excellent as always, drawing a beautifully compassionate portrait of a woman whose life is on the treadmill without really knowing it, until Flux comes along. Prince gives a wonderfully quirky portrayal of Flux, creating a deeply lovable character without being cloying. The balance between these two works very well.
Set, lighting and sound are handled with great skill and precision, making the mundanity of the workplace a visceral experience. But ultimately, it’s the fact that Do Not Pass Go leaves you in a kind of plot purgatory that trips Tong’s story up and leaves you with a wish for something more. Sure, that’s how life seems to be playing out for these characters, but it would be nice if the audience isn’t left wanting as much they are.
