NY-based comedian Kristina DeGiovanni brings her one-person play, ‘The Temp’ to Edinburgh this August, and it’s a goodie. It is first critical to understand that this is not a themed Stand-Up show, neither is it a comical farce with the trappings of a play. This is comedy theatre with bite, which will make you laugh, but most importantly will make you invested in its outcome.
Kristina is the titular Temp, taking on sundry work in between acting gigs as so, so, so many have done before, and continue to do. However, her two workplaces will collide when the CEO of her new office gig hires her to play a part. Office productivity, as measured through various nonsense metrics is in free-fall, and the boss thinks his staff need an example setting. She will be that go-getting, super company woman who gets things done, and a model to the variously beleagured, apathetic, and neurotic workforce.
The story adopts the Fleabag model, the 4th wall removed from the get-go, with Kristina fully aware and prone to putting questions, some rhetorical, to her watchers. There’s part search for validation, and desire to educate in these transactions, as the Temp sets about her new booking. It’s flattering, don’t you realise, that the boss actually read her C.V. far enough to pick up her acting credentials?
Kristina creates her character just a little larger than life, enough to play up the typical actor stereotypes, but keeping her a relatable medium through which to channel stories of her more grotesquely portrayed co-workers. She is funny, but they are funnier, from the travel-obsessed office fashion plate, to the stressed to the gills ‘Senior CC’er’. DeGiovanni has evident strengths as a character actor, and each emerges as a fully formed, distinctly voiced individual. It is, therefore, utterly genius when she explains her inability to do an Australian accent for her office crush, and instead adopts Mario-worthy version of Italian as a subsitute.
The base narrative is coherent, inherently ridiculous and developed in a delightfully macabre direction. There isn’t a single element or plot point which vanishes without trace, or which doesn’t find a purpose in the show. My longer term readers will know I abhor an orphaned plotline or character, it’s a crime againt the dramatic arts.
The set is clever, a compact office desk and chair on wheels in one corner, and two large black boxes stage right to give DeGiovanni a landmark to make journeys about. Upon the desk a mounted tablet, and a simple swipeable slide show let’s her chapterise the story by days, and add a very few graphics to gild the data-centric company she is supposedly working for. Kristina uses the stage well, creating distinct office spaces and vignettes though well blocked movement. Bravo Director Alexandra Scordato who presumably had a strong hand in shaping such an dynamic and smooth production.
Such a show, however, ultimately demands a performer who can hold an audience’s attentions, and win their interest. This is a talent set which DeGiovanni has in the proverbial spades. Her script plays to her strengths, and indicates a fine mind for satire and social observation. Indeed my only note would be to provide the central character with a little more internal conflict to build out the character, and thus make them more relatable. It could well make ‘The Temp’ less likeable as a person, but flaws never made an audience less interested.
It’s a trick which ‘Fleabag’ names in the show’s blurb pulled rather magnificently, and by doing so removed the safety-net from the show’s narrator.
However, if you want to see a hugely promising young actor, with strong comic chops, and an eye for a good piece of drama, then Kristina DeGiovanni has just the show for you. You have one more chance to see ‘The Temp’ in Edinburgh, and I do not exaggerate when I suggest this could be an ‘I was there before they hit the big time’ experience.
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