It’s easy enough to show empathy to those who deserve it. But how on earth do you feel empathetic when you’re in a crappy little office, with your autocratic boss breathing in your ear that he doesn’t “only love piss charts” but also his niece?
Do You Feel Anger? by Mara Nelson-Greenberg chronicles an empathy coach’s fruitless attempts to inspire compassion in an office of debt collectors convinced that empathy is a type of bird. The cast of Players’ Theatre’s Winter 2025 production of the piece (dir. Emma Qian), showcased juvenile anger, misogyny, and outright insanity through astonishing control of facial and physical comedy. The show transported audiences back into the aforementioned conference room where Sophia (Ellie Mota, U3 Arts) struggles to be empathetic towards everyone without endorsing the poor behaviour that is perpetuating the misogynistic status quo. Rapidly delivered dialogue rich with impassioned intonation punctuates the scene, revealing to the audience the complex emotions behind the characters’ words.
From lights up to curtain, audiences were immersed into a world so close to reality it was a little discomforting. Seven chairs, two tables, a file cabinet, day-old coffee, and a baseball bat were nearly all that made up the simple set, yet the actors’ interactions with them brought them vividly to life. The prop bird that soared over the office, still mistaken as literally being empathy, showcased the crew’s design creativity. Qian revealed in an interview with The Tribune that the laborious ideation of this effect began with chucking a stuffed bird across the stage.
Not only did the actors deliver strong performances in the drab office, but—with help from the stage crew—they managed to pull off a seamless quick-change that turned the stage from a crappy office into a crappy bathroom. All aspects displayed clever design, from the functional stall doors to the misogynistic hangman graffiti on the walls. In an interview, Stage Manager Juliette Levy-Gay, U1 Arts, told The Tribune that this setting bears an alarmingly realistic message in being the only space in the office where the women’s true feelings could be expressed without sexualization.
Each costume reflected the characters’ essences, from Eva (Gabrielle Germain, U3 Arts)’s puffed-sleeved innocence to Howie (Maya Kanitkar, U4 Science)’s “daddy’s yacht” quarter-zip sweater. Sophia’s costume change from slacks to a hyper-sexualized skirt punctuated her building estrangement from her values.
The actors built off the setting and costuming groundwork to turn the office into a maelstrom of mid-life crisis and shameless emotional misconduct. Mota navigated a slow decline from patient placation to a break into self-destruction, her soft-spoken voice interrupted by comparatively jarring outbursts of frustration that climaxed with a terrifying wielding of a baseball bat.
Germain took full advantage of microexpressions to convey her character’s complexity. Although her breathless, frantic way of speaking, nearly never finishing her sentences evoked X, the highlights of her performance were the silent reactions of her countenance to the misdeeds around her. The tears glimmering but never quite falling from her eyes, the stiff upper lip of someone struggling not to break, and a jittery leg under the table externalized her inner distress beyond the power of words.
Darcy Blaik, U1 Education, as Jon, mastered the subtle mannerisms of a sleazy boss that are never quite fireable but just enough to make everyone uncomfortable. His ever-present Cheshire grin, tendency to lean into every woman he speaks to, and strange habit of laying himself across the table—very “draw me like one of your French girls”-style—undoubtedly made everyone in the audience feel the anger.
Kanitkar was a hurricane and an audience favourite. Their commitment to physical comedy sold their performance, from kicking a chair so hard that it 360’d in the air to—what I imagine was improv—biting into a prop apple and ripping it fully in half with such vigour that nearly everyone in the scene broke to join the audience in laughter.
A special mention to Elias Luz (U0 Arts), as Old Man, who despite only being onstage for five minutes, had the entire audience doubled over with his raspy but somehow screeching monologue about being left on the playground.
This Players’ Theatre performance had audiences feeling everything but anger. Although unfortunately, Howie never did discover that empathy was in fact not a bird, Do You Feel Anger? implored audiences to question how they exhibit empathy, and the consequences of taking it away.
Do You Feel Anger? played from February 18 to February 21 at Players’ Theatre.
