Theatre veterans would kill for the opinions that Charlotte Dennis has acquired for her function as Jane within the Coal Mine Theatre manufacturing of Max Wolf Friedlich’s 2023 psychological thriller JOB.
About Charlotte Dennis
The actor, 29, comes from Canadian theatre royalty. Her mother and father are esteemed actors Oliver Dennis and Deborah Drakeford, and he or she actually grew up in Toronto’s theatre scene. Dennis noticed her first play when she was three, and acted on stage for the primary time when she was 9.
Nonetheless, since graduating from the Nationwide Theatre Faculty, Dennis has carved her personal pathway and takes immense satisfaction in the truth that each function she has undertaken has been laborious received by audition. The fiercely unbiased actor is set that her profession will occur due to her personal expertise and never her household connections.
To say the function of Jane is difficult is an understatement. JOB closes on Might 18, however Dennis emerges from the manufacturing a universally acclaimed main expertise.
Dennis’ Character Jane in JOB
Friedlich himself was simply 29 when JOB was first produced Off-Broadway earlier than transferring for an prolonged run on the Helen Hayes Theatre. A product of the anxieties of the digital age himself, Friedlich intentionally wrote a chilling confrontation of cultural and generational battle.
Jane is a content material moderator for a giant tech firm, however as a result of she has had a significant meltdown at work that went viral, she will’t get her job again till she will get an okay from therapist Loyd (performed by Diego Matamoras) — and Jane desperately needs her job again.
When the play opens Jane is holding a gun aimed toward Loyd.
What turned very obvious throughout my zoom dialog with Dennis was her eager intelligence and considerate method to each her craft and world view.
What follows are excerpts from that frank dialogue.
The Interview
What was your first impression of JOB?
The play really is such an unbelievable piece of writing, very sophisticated, very dense, very clever, very thrilling.
What was your first response to the character of Jane?
I assumed it was sensible. I felt instantly linked to her, the feel of her language, the best way she talks, her sense of humour. And, I understood the best way she moved, which is thrilling as a result of if you, as an actor, really feel at dwelling within the language of an individual, it’s simpler to place that pores and skin on and off on daily basis. [E]specifically in an audition room the place you may have 10 minutes to indicate individuals what you make of the character. It’s so thrilling to really feel that connection.
Once I was watching the play, I assumed, this author has crammed in each potential meme of current day society. There isn’t one matter both from the left or the correct that he unnoticed. Did you are feeling that?
I’m the youngest Millennial so I’m a cuspy Gen Z. It feels very simple to entry these memes as a result of it’s what I’ve grown up with. It’s the world that I’ve engaged with from my younger life into maturity. Instagram turned a factor after I was within the eleventh or twelfth grade. Fb was eighth and ninth grade. I’ve grown up with on-line entry.
And, I keep in mind when social media turned pervasive and the way it shifted our social dynamic so fully. So, the issues talked about within the play really feel very acquainted to me, the discomfort, the isolation, the ache. And so does the ability of it too.
It’s a really modern play and I’m a recent younger girl, and it feels very thrilling to have the ability to say Jane’s phrases out loud each evening to audiences that each perceive and in addition don’t perceive. , we will really feel when audiences have a familiarity with the ideas.
Admittedly, Coal Mine’s audiences are on the elder facet.
Sure, the Boomers. The wonderful factor about this play is that the Boomers have their character too. Loyd makes some actually glorious factors as properly. I feel it’s actually good for audiences to have the ability to hear either side of the argument with out having a singular perspective.
To me, the play is an actual commentary on the digital age and the divide, the strain between generations. And, that’s the inescapable nature of human beings and what it means to be dwelling in an age that’s so tethered to a web-based life.
In doing my analysis for this present, it’s fairly terrifying what I discovered about how our brains have developed, and the dependancy we really feel to gadgets, and the way capitalism has unfold to the self. I feel the potential is there for one thing very unhealthy to occur.
Jane is the leftist of the left. She doesn’t have a shred of sympathy for the Boomers as a result of she blames them for every thing. Do you sympathize the place she is coming from?
I’m a leftist, completely leftist. It’s not that Jane has no empathy. It’s that she is on the facet of human rights, which is the facet that I’m on. That’s the core of Jane’s perception system.
Look what she takes on. She witnesses the true atrocities of human nature. And, to me, she’s a superhero, and I imply that with all readability and empathy. She is extremely courageous and extremely good and extremely good at her job. And she or he is defending the remainder of us on the web.
Jane is a content material moderator. I didn’t know such a job existed, that somebody appears for the worst barbarities on the web and removes the movies.
I feel what she does is horrific, but it surely’s her mission in life. I additionally assume the factors she makes to Loyd about being a younger girl in a digital age are very good, very clear, very true. I’ve all of the sympathy and love for her.
What do you are feeling about Loyd?
I feel he’s superb at his job, and it’s laborious to be superb at your job when your job is to work with younger girls who’re, quote unquote, hopeless, who’ve had essentially the most epic breakdowns. And that makes him a very good listener, that makes him curious, that makes him considerate. So, I’ve numerous sympathy for him — up to a degree.
We don’t wish to give something away, however close to the top, the playwright pulls a 180 and takes the play off into a brand new horrifying course.
Which provides one other stage to the play.
On one hand, you’ve acquired this troubled younger girl and the psychiatrist. She needs her job again as a result of she thinks she should do it. I discovered that basically fascinating, that you just return and do one thing horrible as a result of it’s necessary.
After which, there may be this surprising plot twist.
What does this tangent add to the play?
What the playwright has achieved is so good, and we actually don’t get numerous actually good thrillers anymore. It’s so thrilling to have a shock like this in a play the place you simply don’t see it coming. You assume he’s writing an fascinating factor about this stress between the generations, and all people is ready to say what they give thought to one another, after which increase, you get this shock.
Does one thing like this have an effect on your performing?
It fully adjustments the dynamic. You’ve acquired a play after which you may have one other play. When it comes to vitality, it’s a extremely distinctive problem to hold Jane’s discovery of the plot twist. It’s been such enjoyable and numerous work to determine the right way to play her in these moments.
Did you ever assume for one minute that after Jane’s unbelievable outburst, why would they even give her an opportunity to get her job again?
In fact we did take into consideration that, and it does add a layer of complication, however Jane simply had a breakdown. It’s not like she did something flawed, so she was placed on indefinite depart.
Can we speak about that epic scream? The psychiatrist performs the tape to remind Jane what her breakdown seemed like, and the viewers will get to listen to it too. Did you ever in your thoughts act out what occurred within the workplace?
I did act it, so to talk, as a result of it’s recorded. I didn’t essentially return and work out the small print of the breakdown, however the sense reminiscence lives in my physique. I used to be standing there whereas all people was watching, and I used to be screaming, and it was a reasonably epic expertise bodily that exists in my physique.
What’s the significance of this play?
The creator says at the start of JOB that it’s a interval piece. It takes place in 2020, earlier than the election, earlier than COVID. It’s a really particular second in our actuality that we lived and skilled. He’s achieved a extremely sensible job in making a recent interval piece.
I feel it’s going to be an absolute time capsule of what the expertise is true now. It speaks to a really, very particular second in our political and psychological panorama. My hope is that this play will stay a protracted, lengthy, lengthy life, and as we transfer via cycles on this earth, will probably be one thing that stays related and thought upsetting.
Effectively, as I stated earlier than, Friedlich crammed in each potential meme like Me Too, and Black Lives Matter, and local weather change. There isn’t something that he unnoticed.
That’s as a result of these actions are necessary they usually’re what we must be speaking about. What we must be transferring in the direction of is a kinder, extra beneficiant, extra linked world that has empathy for everybody, it doesn’t matter what. I don’t assume he’s making an attempt to cram issues in. Reasonably, I feel he’s speaking concerning the issues which might be on the forefront of our minds, particularly on the web. So sure, the play is totally of the now.
So, individuals will in the future take a look at JOB the best way we take a look at O’Neill, Chekhov and Shakespeare?
Sure, I feel that’s completely proper. The play is a selected second in time, and I feel the specificity is what’s going to make the understanding of the emotional expertise felt extra later down the road, when this play will get produced in 2042 or what have you ever.
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Paula Citron is a Toronto-based freelance arts journalist and broadcaster who hosts her personal web site, paulacitron.ca. For over 25 years, she was senior dance author for The Globe and Mail, affiliate editor of Opera Canada journal, arts reviewer for Classical 96.3 FM, and dance previews contributor to Toronto Life journal. She has been a visitor lecturer for numerous cultural teams and universities, significantly on the function of the critic/reviewer, and has been a panellist on COC podcasts. Earlier than assuming a full-time journalism profession, Ms. Citron was a member of the drama division of the Claude Watson Faculty for the Arts.
