Writer and Director: Craig Henry
Of all the job application processes to endure – interviews, presentations, tests – assessment centres are the worst, not only making candidates sit in a room with their competition but setting a series of tasks that forces them to interact. Craig Henry’s new play, performed at the Etcetera Theatre as part of the Camden Fringe, also discovers it is an interesting place to explore the emotional history and practical approach of two polar opposite characters applying for a job neither really knows about.
Freya, a marketing manager with a first from Cambridge, finds herself in the same room as Clay, a charity worker with a more open personality. Set a series of tasks by their unknown hosts, the pair initially finds they have very little in common, struggling to understand why they might be in the same group. Both determined to ‘win’ the job, the assessment centre approach eventually wears them down.
Henry’s play begins with a very strong premise, a small room, two very different people and a prize at the end for whoever performs better. This production at the Etcetera Theatre suggests the confined situation and the reluctant pressure that Freya and Clay feel to perform the semi-ridiculous tasks in order to impress whoever is watching. And Henry has been inventive in selecting non-traditional interview assignments including riddles, egg carrying and finally some off-topic questions that create an opportunity to bring out some character background information which appears to be the real purpose of this play.
The clashing personalities are great and for the first 45 minutes Assessment Centre is also very funny, but the switch to therapy session feels a little abrupt, as the story shifts to an examination of mutual grief and coping mechanisms. There are clues along the way of course, and Henry includes mention of death and graveyards several times in the lead-up to the final discussion, but this presses at the credulity of the scenario – would two complete strangers really talk about dying so often in a job interview, and would they open up so easily to one another with so little incentive after only forming a bond by carrying an egg between them in a previous task?
The original assessment centre focus is a real opportunity to examine how different personalities operate under pressure, the assumption that Freya’s cool persona and higher educational attainment would give her the edge and the drama that builds between them as frustrations and expectations build. But Henry spends too little time questioning the process itself and the slightly dystopian overtones it conveys. What exactly is the job they think they are applying for, who is running the assessment centre, where will it lead and at what point will the candidates fight back?
There is a lot here that provides a solid grounding for future iterations and performers Pippa Moss as Freya and Jasper Talbot as Clay develop an intriguing chemistry that offers plenty of development opportunities, but this particular scenario would be stronger if the characters look outward rather than inward, finding common ground in a shared desire to know who or what is controlling them and why. With candidates being expected to go through ever-increasing obstacles to be hired, Freya and Clay need to ask whether this job is worth the trouble.
Reviewed on 13 August 2023
Camden Fringe runs until 27 August 2023
