It's a cutthroat world out there for ITSAZOO Productions.
The Vancouver theatre company is presenting The Competition is Fierce, a new play by Sebastien Archibald, from March 3 to 22 in the Shop Theatre at Renegade Studios.
Appearing in the show is New Westminster's own Marilyn Norry, a well-known face on the Vancouver stage.
She's one of the stars of the work set in a dystopian corporate future where "climbing the company ladder" entails gladiatorial combat to the death.
Norry appears as the psychopathic CEO Madeline in the play, which follows the story of two white-collar workers - a timid lackey and a handsome loner - as they battle to the death for a high-profile job.
The play also stars Rachel Cairns, Chris Cochrane, Carlo Marks and Andrew Wheeler, and it's directed by Chelsea Haberlin.
Archibald, who's also the co-artistic producer of ITSAZOO, said his inspiration for the piece was a "volatile" telemarketing job he worked in university.
"The job was highly competitive, with huge turnover, a contemptuous attitude toward employees, and cliché-ridden corporate rhetoric that was taken far too seriously," he said in a press release. "More recently, I've become deeply interested in psychological studies showing the statistic success and prevalence of psychopaths in the corporate environment. The Competition is Fierce is the filtered product of this new fascination and decade-old experience."
The Competition is Fierce is onstage at Renegade Studios, 125 East Second Ave., Vancouver, from March 3 to 22. It's on Tuesdays through Sundays at 8 p.m. Tickets are $25 regular, or $20 for students and seniors.
Buy through brownpapertickets.com or itsazoo.org.
