The Grönholm Method

Falcon Theatre, Burbank, Calif., (818) 955-8101

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This “delightfully twisted” satire from Barcelona feels uncomfortably relevant in 2012 America, said Travis Michael Holder in Backstage.com. Catalan playwright Jordi Galcerán wrote the original play nine years ago, before the financial collapse and “the exposure of the high-level gluttony that made bankers our enemies.” Here, in its American premiere, the English-language translation grows before our eyes from “a smart, quirky little comedy” about an unusual job interview into “a scathing treatise on how modern corporate culture seeks out and rewards the most ruthlessly immoral behavior.” The four candidates competing for an executive job at a multinational PR firm may start out “politely sipping Voss water” and “discussing the horrendous traffic they had to endure to get there.” But the atmosphere rapidly turns atavistic.

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That’s because “more is going on than meets the eye,” said Bob Verini in Variety. The potential employer is conducting a test to determine which of the job candidates will be the last to crack under pressure. A drawer in one wall keeps opening, bearing envelopes that contain challenges the candidates must meet to remain in the hunt. While those candidates—from Jonathan Cake’s “cynical smoothie” to Stephen Spinella’s “chatty middle-aged family man” and Lesli Margherita’s fiercely competitive alpha female—at first seem mere stereotypes, the cast makes each character recognizably human. Soon, the contest’s possible outcomes become less compelling than the play’s “winding journey of mind-bending surprises.”

“The end result is wickedly funny, extremely cerebral—and only makes sense after the audience evaluates all the plot twists,” said Jonas Schwartz in TheaterMania.com. While such complexity might threaten to frustrate audiences, director BT McNicholl’s carefully planned production keeps the story’s many moving parts from spinning out of control. “At a time when corporate HR interviewers demand Facebook passwords” from desperate job-seekers, the surrealism of Galcerán’s fictional employment contest barely feels far-fetched.