By Monica Moore (Broadway World)

Indian Ink Theatre Company presents: Dirty Work

What do you get when you cross “The Office” with “Zoe’s Extraordinary Playlist”? A musical dramedy – “Dirty Work”, a play now showing at Q Theatre.

The premise of the show is a workplace under pressure, with a cleaner Joy, much overlooked. She cleans and sings, the male manager frets and his second-in-command dreams of ashrams and what might be for her holidays. The three lead characters are innovatively supported by a cast of choral performers who set the mood with various emblematic songs.

Jacob Rajan and Justin Lewis (Indian Ink) have written a play that causes the audience to question potential misconceptions about the value of work, ambition and drudgery. The company in the play is called Sisyphus for a reason! Justin Rogers (manager), Tessa Rao (second in command) and Catherine Yates (Joy the cleaner) are all well cast and provide strong performances in this physically humorous tale.

Josh Clark as conductor, keyboardist and drummer provides a star turn with his troupe of choristers – they really make the play something memorable and the choices of music are very apt as are the arrangements bringing the music, songs and action together. For a good night out, some light entertainment with a serious twist, be sure to include Dirty Work in your list of must-see plays this season.

The production runs at the Q Theatre until 2nd July then continues on to Nelson, Christchurch, Wellington and Tauranga.