Putting Office Politics on ‘Hold’

Nothing feeds fear and self-loathing like a technological advancement.

A brief theatrical illustration of this can be found in Annie Weisman’s “Hold Please,” now at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa. High among the production’s pluses is Kimberly K. King as poor, fraught Agatha, whose introduction to the new telecommunications system proves a comic highlight. “No he’s not may I take a message and have him get right back to you? Thank you very much . Oh ... I pressed the wrong

In back-to-back world premieres at major American regional theaters--hot stuff, and she’s only 28--playwright Weisman has proven herself. She’s clever, she’s interested in both melancholy and comic velocity, and she has an ear for manic, brand-name-strewn, media-saturated banter.

Frustratingly, “Hold Please” starts off like a thoroughbred, fast and smooth, keeps it up for an act, and then falters rather alarmingly post-intermission. Weisman ditches the looser and more open-ended aspects of her writing for the usual fodder--revealed secrets, “conflict,” a pat resolution.

These things will no doubt help her work get produced, and they’ll certainly help her in Hollywood. They just won’t make her a better playwright.

“Hold Please” alternates between the clerical pool of the firm of Solomon, Xavier, Greenspan and Sachs, and its tiny outdoor smoking patio. The “Xavier” of the company’s name is about to go, on sexual harassment charges. While the unseen bosses are away from the office, Erika (Tessa Auberjonois) and Jessica (Jillian Bach), in their 20s, work the phones, play computer games, talk about their latest sexual whatevers.

Erika’s having an affair with Solomon and is pregnant; she’s also dallying with a co-worker lower down the food chain. Jessica’s had it with her passive-aggressive boyfriend and goes to dubious lengths so that he’ll get in touch with his inner abusive bully.

All this is alien territory to middle-aged Agatha, whose shoulders carry decades of tension and perceived and actual slights. She doesn’t understand kids today, while Grace (Linda Gehringer) is more accepting and less threatened by the younger women.

The play, in its fuzzy way, acknowledges that for some women, a radical imbalance of power underlying a workplace affair doesn’t necessarily make it evil. In the 1990s, when the politically correct pendulum was really swinging and co-workers really weren’t, America endured a prim overreaction to previous decades. So where are we now? We are lost, Weisman says, though not hopeless, and not without options. Part “The Apartment,” part “Glengarry Glen Ross,” “Hold Please” is an attempt to figure out these matters.

Weisman settles for some easy humiliations. Jessica becomes a horrifying robotic caricature by play’s end, exerting her newfound--if briefly held--power, turning against her former pal Erika. Weisman has a tendency to pit her shrill hyper-stylized comic creations against her low-key “human” ones.

As Erika, Auberjonois is a distinctively off-center comic actress. She never over-stresses a beat, or brings out the obvious intention in a line. You believe her as a pleasantly lost soul; offices of all kinds are full of them, but few possess her graceful comic timing.

Bach’s a killer in terms of nailing Jessica’s semi-psychotic mood swings, though her sketch-comic energy gets a bit wearing. Gehringer’s Grace takes her cue from the character name; she’s a supernaturally upbeat, open-hearted creation, very likable.

Director Mark Rucker keeps the material in the air as long as possible, before Act 2 falls to earth in little predictable plops. Christopher Acebo’s set--four workstations and a break room--is just right, as is Joyce Kim Lee’s costumes; Geoff Korf’s lighting; and Aram Arslanian’s sound scape, full of Internet-connection beeps, boops and emissions.

Weisman’s vision is a comically despairing one, fundamentally retro-perplexed. The play can’t resolve its contradictory impulses; it can’t even come up with a decent hackneyed ending. But even that’s to Weisman’s credit. She’s smart enough to distrust the old gender lies, and in “Hold Please,” she’s working toward something truer.

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* “Hold Please,” South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Tuesdays-Fridays, 7:45 p.m.; Saturdays-Sundays, 2 and 7:45 p.m. Ends Oct. 21. $27-$51. (714) 708-5555 or https://www.scr.org. Running time: 2 hours, 5 minutes.

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Tessa Auberjonois: Erika

Jillian Bach: Jessica

Linda Gehringer: Grace

Kimberly K. King: Agatha

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Written by Annie Weisman. Directed by Mark Rucker. Scenic design by Christopher Acebo. Costumes by Joyce Kim Lee. Lighting by Geoff Korf. Sound by Aram Arslanian. Stage manager Edward Tighe. Production manager Jerry Patch.