If you’ve ever been on Zoom or a conference call, you’ll laugh out loud at all the technical glitches in The Huns.

The hilarious, black comedy by Toronto writer Michael Ross Albert, so aptly set in a Neptune boardroom, is about the chaos of today’s office technology, interpersonal relationships and, on the more serious side, the insanity of life in a cubicle.

The playwright beautifully unravels and reveals what’s going on in a fast-paced, ever more chaotic scenario of a conference call held in the wake of a serious event that happened the night before. It’s exactly of our time but also recalls the tragedy of David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross and the personality quirks of The Office on TV.

Iris, the returning manager, is in her element leading the call assisted by outgoing interim manager Shelley while a top, technology designer Pete fumes away checking his cellphone for updates on the plane he needs to catch.

From the minute Gil Anderson as Iris breezes into the board room with a giant vase of fake flowers and tries to operate the broken TV remote it’s clear she is one of those tightly wound, officious personalities who thrives on procedure and can’t handle real life. She is up against a common problem – the failure of the PowerPoint presentation. This is a wonderful performance with every detail registered in Anderson’s face and the constant knowledge of stress burbling away beneath Iris’s buttoned up office sweater.

The making of the call and connecting with company workers in the head office of London, England, and satellite offices in New York, Houston and Montreal is very funny and true-to-life with all the different voices and someone caught in a wind tunnel and unable to hear or be heard. The fact she is an employee who became the absent boss’s wife is even more acute and comical.

It’s clear from the beginning these office connections are toxic; what becomes ever clearer are the power dynamics and the psychology of pain within each character.

Katerina Bakolias as Shelley is initially confident, deferential and good at her job, trying to exit on a grace note and not let Iris get under her skin. Liam Fair’s Pete is loud and irritated, struggles to be on point with mandated gender and behavioural language and considers Shelley a friend who “sees” him. All the while time bombs are ticking as the conference callers drop off and on.

Matchstick Theatre’s artistic director Jake Planinc directs for a delicious rhythm of revelation and fine details in the vocal and physical acting. Most of the action is held around the boardroom table as if the actors were in a boxing ring.

Since its founding in 2017 Matchstick has produced 11 Canadian plays, most recently taking its award-winning production of David French’s Leaving Home to Toronto. This production won the Robert Merritt awards for Outstanding Production and Outstanding Direction (Jake Planinc)

The company both revitalizes classic Canadian plays and produces contemporary theatre including works by Hannah Moscovitch, Catherine Banks and the late Michael Melski. (Melski’s groundbreaking play Joyride, produced by Matchstick in 2019, premiered at the Atlantic Fringe Festival over three decades ago.)

This production of The Huns is an Atlantic Canadian debut and is designed by Jordan Palmer and Kaelen MacDonald, with Chelsea Dickie (stage manager) and Alex Mills (house manager). Both the costumes and the use of lighting are a great fit with the play.

The Huns continues its fringe run September 6 and 7 in Neptune Theatre’s Craig Boardroom (accessed via elevator from the Scotiabank Stage entrance, 1593 Argyle St, Halifax, Nova Scotia). Tickets are $20 at www.matchsticktheatre.ca.

This is the 36^th anniversary of the Halifax Fringe Festival, started on Gottingen St. as the Atlantic Fringe Festival by the late Ken Pinto. While the festival has become more polished over the years with Neptune Theatre’s committment as a venue and with a highly efficient organization, it remains true to its roots of low-cost, adventuresome art. All the shows are listed online at halifaxfringefestival.ca and also, in a clearer way, in the physical guide. (The Scotiabank Theatre has lots of guides.)

• Icarus, Falling of Birds: theatre that opens up the heart and the mind
• For the Love of Italian Gardens: Karen Kulyk at Secord Gallery to Sept. 26

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