‘The Lunch Bunch’ – Written by Sarah Einspanier; Directed by Danielle Fauteux Jacques; Scenic & Sound Design: Joseph Lark-Riley; Lighting Design: Danielle Fauteux Jacques; Presented by Apollinaire Theatre Company Chelsea Theatre Works, located at 189 Winnisimmet St., Chelsea, MA through January 21
by Mike Hoban
What do you do when the stress of your thankless job drives you to the brink of madness every single day? You could drink like a fish and do boatloads of cocaine like the brokers in Wolf of Wall Street, or there’s always the healthier options of meditating, doing yoga, getting a therapist, or working out. Or you could try a third option: engage obsessively in a ritual that gives you the illusion of control over your chaotic and unpredictable life. The latter is the route that the characters in Apollinaire’s production of the Lunch Bunch have taken, and while it works just about as well as you would suspect it would for the characters, this very funny sendup of foodie culture is a great stress reliever for audiences.
Lunch Bunch is set in a tiny public defender’s office where seven overworked, underpaid, and unappreciated attorneys work to help children who suffer from child abuse and neglect and families who lack the means to defend themselves. It’s a brutal job with a high burnout rate, and the office’s bright orange (persimmon?) walls don’t exactly contribute to the serenity of the stressed-out staff as they muffle sobs in the office coat closet. The employees’ personal lives seem to center around take-home work, Netflix, and taking pictures of their cats while suffering night terrors and loneliness.
Jacob (Cristhian Mancinas-García), the longest-tenured attorney in the office (ten years, where the average burnout rate is three), has devised a solution to combat the stress of the office – the Lunch Bunch. The group, composed of five (for each day of the work week) attorneys hand-selected by Jacob, must bring in a prepared meal for the rest of the office, with an emphasis on healthy eating (“sugar is poison,” “dairy is poison” are the mantras). Jacob rules the group with an iron fist, expelling one member from the group for daring to include pretzels as a side dish.
When Tal (Michael “Shifty” Celestin) radically decides to take a restorative vacation to Paris and Tuttle (a hilariously tortured Parker Jennings) goes on the Whole30 program, which requires her to “voluntarily renounce sugar, dairy, grains, legumes, alcohol – and fun” to find “whatever’s been giving me occasional gas and near-constant feelings of worthlessness,” Jacob must find a Monday replacement. He reluctantly fills it with Nicole (Laura Hubbard), a woman with zero self-esteem and an unrefined palate. When she expresses her lack of confidence in her ability to deliver worthy meals, the office emotional anchor Hannah (an assured Paola Ferrer) tells her, “It’s the 21st century. With a few clicks on the internet and a trip to Trader Joe’s, you can replicate the feasts of past emperors in under 30 minutes.”
Like most attempts at controlling feelings by trying to control the environment, it’s a solution that isn’t bound to work very well, but watching the characters trying to cope with their jobs and lives through healthy avenues like Tal, Greg (Alex Leondedis), and Mitra (Julia Hertzberg), and not-so-healthy routes like Jacob, is fun to watch. The dialogue is machine-gun-paced, and playwright Sarah Einspanier (who took the idea for the play from a real-life group of public defenders actually doing the Lunch Bunch thing) counters the bleak reality of their existence with some great comic lines. Foodies will also have a ball listening to the food combinations the lawyers spit out, like over-caffeinated waiters giving the daily specials at a vegan eatery. At a little over sixty minutes, it’s an excellent way to break out of the holiday regimen, and for foodies, there are a number of great little restaurants right near the Chelsea Theatre Works worth exploring. In addition, Apollinaire has partnered with groups that address food insecurity, which will be available for discussion after some shows (some with food). For information and tickets, go to https://www.apollinairetheatre.com.
