The Culture Vulture

Harmony is a 21st century company. Their recruitment methods raise a number of ethical questions, for they make extensive use of social media to assist them in the selection of employees.

“Harmony” is also the title of a one-act play which deals with this contentious subject.

The Culture Vulture and his wife had the pleasure of attending a performance of this powerful short play on Saturday evening in Ronda (Málaga).

This obra de teatro was performed by La Pequeña Compañia del Proyecto Platea in their intimate theatre studio Sala Puerta Amarilla in Calle Bulerías in the San Rafael barrio of Ronda.

As you enter this dramatic space, the atmosphere is already set. Two mysterious figures, both dressed in white, hover around the stark set, tablets in hand. Partly ushers, partly characters in the play, actress Nieves Rodríguez and the play’s director, Marcos Marcell, are there to set the scene against a soundtrack about “Harmony”, the company in question. It is clear that Marcos and Nieves are not to be addressed for they are “in character” and behaving in a somewhat sinister manner.

The set is minimalist, a white table, two chairs, a laptop computer and a white envelope. This is the interview room, the setting for this 35-minute-long piece.

We first see the interviewer dressed in a white suit and played by Charo Carrasco. She leaves the stage and the interviewee, dressed in a conventional black suit, played by Ana Belén Sánchez, enters and, facing the audience, checks her face, hair and clothing in an imaginary mirror. A very effective touch.

The interviewer re-enters, invites the candidate to sit and to present her case for getting the job. Clearly put out by this unconventional start to the proceedings, the candidate proceeds to regurgitate her curriculum vitae. She is stopped abruptly.

“No need. I can read and have read your CV.”

The candidate, clearly off her stride, then starts to describe the company, intending, presumably, then to say why she is the ideal person to fill the position.

This is also not to the interviewer’s taste.

As the interview proceeds the extremely strident interviewer informs the candidate that they have used social media extensively as part of their selection process. Text posts and pictures.

We learn that the candidate’s father died of cancer, that her mother suffered severe depression, that the candidate cheated on her long-standing partner and that she has been unemployed for months – all this purely from what the candidate has posted on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the like.

The company even used facial recognition techniques on her photos to learn more about the candidate, who by now is getting hysterical. Her protestations that this is invasion of her privacy fall on deaf ears. After all, as the smug interviewer points out, all this information is in the public domain, posted voluntarily by the candidate.

On the table is also an envelope containing a job offer and details of the salary. The candidate is invited to open it. She does so and her face registers shock. The salary offered is apparently risible. Deductions have been made for her transgressions, as discovered on social media.

With that the candidate flees the room, hysterical. The play ends. Point made and very well. And very shocking.

This was a consummate performance; pacy with crisp dialogue and extremely thought-provoking. The three actresses are amateurs, yet director Marcos Marcell, a professional actor and director, has coaxed performances of an extremely high professional standard from these three “local girls”.

Brilliant! Well done!

Coming soon:

Look out for their next production “Novias” on 6/7 December at the same venue, Sala Puerta Amarilla. Tickets are available at Intersport Cary on Carrer Espinel in Ronda.

The Culture Vulture writes:

I’ve seen this brilliantly funny play set in a bridal shop twice before. In the patio of El Convento in Ronda and in the open air in the village of Atajate (Málaga). I shall be going again next month. I’m intrigued to see this play in the small intimate space at Sala Puerta Amarilla.

What’s it to be? thought the Culture Vulture. The Beatles Songbook or England v. USA in the Qatar World Cup? Both were on at the exact same time.

The FIFA World Cup only comes around every four years, and after the English team’s pulsating 6-2 win in their first match against Iran, surely this was a game not to be missed.

The concert of Beatle music was for one night only, and it did sound exciting. Six musicians, four strings, one piano and a xylophone, reinterpreting Beatles’ masterpieces.

What did the Culture Vulture choose?

I posted my dilemma on Facebook, and to a man and woman, the responses all counselled the concert – and this from football-mad Spaniards!

So, that’s what I decided to do. After all, I could watch the football highlights later on BBC1.

And, boy oh boy, did I make the right choice. The concert was brilliant and, as I was to later find out, the football match didn’t have any highlights. It was a boring 0-0 draw in which England were fortunate to gain a point. USA had dominated the match.

Back to the concert. It was free-of-charge, so I got to the Teatro Vicente Espinel in Ronda half an hour early to be sure of getting a seat. There were only six people there before me! Great. I got my pick of the seats. Third row from the stage, in the middle.

By the time the concert began the numbers had swelled to around 150. Still not many out of a Ronda population of 33,000, however. Perhaps they had all stayed in to watch the footie!

The band came on stage. Cuarteto Granada with special guests Javier Navas and José Carra made up the six musicians, five males and a female. Their instruments were piano, two violins, a viola, a cello and a xylophone. A xylophone? How does that work?

Well, it did! And how! The audience was treated to 90 minutes of great tunes re-arranged as instrumentals to suit the instruments on show. As the only percussion the xylophone really worked well and enhanced the whole performance.

They kicked off with “Eleanor Rigby”, well-suited to strings, of course. By the way, the original Beatles’ version of this iconic song is the only one on which no Beatle plays a note. Fact.

Then we sat back and enjoyed their versions of “Across the Universe”, “Day Tripper”, “Come Together”, “Blackbird” and “Norwegian Wood”, before they concluded with George Harrison’s “Something”, a track from the album Abbey Road, “You Never Give me Your Money”, and “A Day in the Life” from Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

A triumph, even without the moving lyrics of the original.

A standing ovation brought us a triumphant encore, “Let it Be”, one of their last ever recordings.

I had been sitting with my pal Emilio, who is a local lad around my age. We both agreed that this music by the Fab Four from Liverpool represents the classical music of that era, the 1960s. John Lennon, long dead, and Paul McCartney, just turned 80 and still touring, really were the Mozart and Mendelssohn of the 20^th Century.

©  The Culture Vulture

Tags: Abbey Road, A Day in the Life, Beatles, Beatles Songbook, Blackbird, cello, Come Together, concert, Cuarteto Granada, Culture Vulture, Eleanor Rigby, England, Fab Four, Facebook, FIFA, football, free-of-charge, Javier Navas, John Lennon, José Carra, Let it Be, Liverpool, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Norwegian Wood, Paul McCartney, piano, population, Qatar, Ronda, Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Something, Teatro Vicente Espinel, triumph, USA, viola, violin, World Cup, xylophone