Dear John (Take a Chance on Me)

The crash is at its height and South America is taking a hit.  In a multinational banking office in Santiago, loyal, long-serving employee Verónica is sure she must be safe:  she’s toed the line, supported the brand, and bought wholesale into the corporate philosophy.  Nevertheless, when a new CEO takes his post, she moves to secure her position, taking literally his invitation to staff to reply to his round-robin email.  After all, you can’t be too careful, and surely it’s good business to make friends with the new big cheese.  But as the effects of restructures and cost-cutting take hold, there follows a one-way conversation that grows more and more desperate.  What begins with suggestions for an IT revamp ends with a goodbye that is far from fond.  Combining Verónica’s emails with a collage of financial marketing materials, recruitment questionnaires, rigorous physical exercise and a dose of a certain Swedish pop band, this darkly comic tale of a global and personal loss of control reminds us of a recent history that could all too easily happen again, wherever you are in the world.

We have a saying, ‘the marraqueta is crustier this morning’, or something like that. We say it when Chile wins at the football. Marraqueta is a type of bread, similar to a baguette, by the way. It’s not true that we say that about the bread, I never say it, it’s more of a working-class saying, the doorman in my building uses it. I think this is the first time I’ve actually understood it. Today, here in the office, the marraqueta is stale and tasteless. But still, I’m hungry. I’m starving, even though I feel a bit sick. It must have happened to you, too. I’m leaving now, just for a while. I don’t want to have to answer the webchat or the phone. I’m going for breakfast: a chai latte and a ham and cheese croissant. Scheduling the information meeting for five o’clock in the morning wasn’t a very empathetic gesture; I want you to know that.

This play has been translated as part of a British Council Santiago project, which aims to translate a number of modern Chilean plays into English for the first time.  Other plays in the selection include The Lady of the Andes by Bosco Cayo, The Desolate Prince, by Juan Radrigán, and The Recommendation by Egon Wolff, some of Chile’s most renowned and prolific playwrights.

Contact me for more details.

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