Theater Review: DO YOU FEEL ANGER? (Marin Theatre)

RAUNCHY AND RIDDLED

Marin Theatre carries a torch for unusual and challenging productions at its Mill Valley location. This past season has seen a collection of shows, each producing a controversial “loved it/hated it” response from critics and audiences alike. The final show of their season, Do You Feel Anger? is in the same league.

Promoted as a “bitingly funny” and “hilarious” satire, the show at least starts off with intensely goofy caricatures of office workers at a debt collection agency. The striking set, designed by Randy-Wong Westbrooke, works well as a functional office with overhead fluorescents and boring furniture.

Phil Wong, Max Forman-Mullin and (back) Sam Jackson

The employees’ work ethic is about as sharp as a Chapstick, with predictably poor results. The chauvinistic boss (Joseph Patrick O’Malley) briefly interrupts his carpet golf to goad new hire Sofia (Sam Jackson), an empathy coach expected to boost employees’ production. He’s a big fan of delegating rather than doing.

Sofia is smart and steadfast in her patient determination, but cannot make progress with the dolts (Max Forman-Mullin and Phil Wong) focused on “piss charts” and infantile asides. Another employee (Linda Maria Giron) shrieks and giggles and fantasizes about being a mermaid before escaping into the bathroom.

Joseph Patrick O'Malley, Phil Wong, Max Forman-Mullin and Sam Jackson

It seems Sofia is the only voice of reason in this rowdy funhouse. When she admits her frustrations communicating with the employees, the boss’s smarmy advice is she would get better cooperation if she wore a dress.

This assemblage of whacko characters, directed by Becca Wolff, shows off terrific acting despite the script’s shallow substance. It’s low-brow humor for the first hour of this intermissionless 90-minute show. From there, it dissolves into bizarre scenes which make little sense and grow tiresome, with fewer and fewer laughs from the audience.

Phil Wong, Linda Maria Girón, Max Forman-Mullin and Sam Jackson

The script by Mara Nelson-Greehberg wanders to unexplained links, such as the interruption by an old man (Jesse Caldwell) on a walker who is either dating or married to one of the employees. Why is this nutcase trying to blow up the office with two cans of dog food?

Sofia’s mother (Atosa Babaoff) makes offstage phone calls which get ignored. An email from Sophia’s father is read with a repetitious “blow job” mantra. Sofia slowly surrenders to the madness, and wears a dress. Who feels anger now?

The final scene in a ladies bathroom defies understanding. Three women on toilets, one a mermaid. One might ask the playwright, did you want us to feel confused as well as angry?

Sam Jackson and Atosa Babaoff

photos by David Allen

Do You Feel Anger?
Marin Theatre, 397 Miller Avenue in Mill Valley
Wed-Sat at 7:30; Sat & Sun at 2
ends on June 29, 2025
for tickets ($47-$85), call 415.388.5208 or visit Marin Theatre

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Cari Pace is a voting member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.