Entertaining Executives. Robert Spillane

managers were systematically abused. They laughed loudest when one character said that you cannot underestimate managers because they’re idiots. They laughed nervously when the psychologist/ management consultant, Lloyd, was questioned and skewered by several of those idiots.

      A play allows a writer to use various literary strategies, including humour, satire, cynicism and exaggeration, which are not normally found in books on management. Some topics receive more treatment in this play than others because dialogues, whether educational or entertaining, do not follow predictable paths. Such is life.

      Sydney,

      2015.

       ENTERTAINING EXECUTIVES

      A shorter version of Entertaining Executives was first performed at the Mermaid Theatre, London, on 24 May 2006 with the following cast:

Lucy Black	Lesley
Catherine Hamilton	Melanie
Andrew Hilton	Lloyd
Roland Oliver	Cooke
Jacob Dylan Thomas	Alfred
Matthew Thomas	Brian

      Directed by Andrew Hilton.

      CHARACTERS

      Alfred Adler, junior manager, age: late 20s

      Brian Burrow, middle manager, age: mid 30s

      Lesley Rogers, (female) middle manager, age: early 40s

      Melanie, Human Resource Assistant, age: late 20s

      Ralph Cooke, her boss, Human Resource Manager, age: late 50s

      Ian Lloyd, psychologist/management consultant, age: early 50s

       ACT ONE - AT THE OFFICE

      SCENE: Office with desk and several chairs. Brian sits working at desk. Enter Alf brandishing a letter.

      ALF: Brian, have you seen this letter?

      BRIAN: What letter?

      ALF: The old man himself has written to me.

      BRIAN: To you? You’re kidding.

      ALF: In five years I’ve never received a letter from ‘on high’.

      BRIAN: It must be a mistake.

      ALF: No, no. I’ve been invited to a conference.

      BRIAN: You? To a conference?

      ALF: A conference for high potential managers.

      BRIAN: Then it’s definitely a mistake.

      ALF: Why?

      BRIAN: (snatching letter and reading) Give it to me. ‘Dear Colleagues’. This is not addressed to you! Nowhere does it say ‘Dear Alfred’ or ‘Mr Adler’.

      ALF: My name is on the envelope.

      BRIAN: But the letter is not addressed to you personally.

      ALF: (retrievingletter) Give it back. (Reads)“Congratulations, you have been selected from a large number of candidates to attend the Advanced Management Conference…”

      BRIAN: Why ‘advanced’? How can management be ‘advanced’?

      ALF: Perhaps it’s for junior managers like me who want to be…

      BRIAN: Senior managers?

      ALF: Well, I don’t want to be a junior manager forever.

      BRIAN: You’re not a junior manager. You’re a clerk who tells other clerks what to do.

      ALF: But that’s important.

      BRIAN: Our managers make it difficult for people to do their jobs. Is that important?

      ALF: (shakes his head and returns to letter) “The conference will run for five challenging days when you will be educated in the latest theories of management.”