Want a pay rise but unsure of how to go about asking for it? The theater group of French language training center Alliance Française de Shanghai has a few suggestions in their new production of L'Augmentation (The Art of Asking Your Boss for A Raise).

Written in 1967 by French writer and filmmaker Georges Perec, the dark humor play focuses on the speculation of an employee, known only as "X," who works in a company referred to as "Y," and is expecting a pay rise. X has never complained about the company. However, when X starts thinking about asking for a pay rise, the audience is presented with an inner dialogue as X is faced with different sides of their own personality, which veer between disciplined and shameless. The actual character of X never appears onstage as one person, but rather is presented through the three actors playing different aspects of X's personality.

Director William Bascaule presented Harold Pinter's L'Amant (The Lover) at the same venue last January, which sold out its two-week run. In his latest production, three Chinese actresses take on roles that represent different thoughts in X's mind, unveiling a labyrinthine group mental game. The play will be performed in French with Chinese subtitles.

"Several things were important in this project," said Bascaule. "First was to keep the comic elements, the irony and the cynicism of the original text, but without falling into ridicule or sarcasm. Then creating situations and movement onstage so that actors can memorize better the extremely difficult text."

A scene from a French and Chinese theater co-production of the classic French dark humor play L'Augmentation Photos: Courtesy of Alliance Française de Shanghai

Wordplay

Experimental wordplay is a signature of Perec, who won a series of literature and film awards. A street in Paris and even an asteroid have been named after the playwright.

L'Augmentation displays the irony and melancholic language style of the writer. In the 60-page text of the play, the writer creates six personages - the proposal, the alternative, positive hypothesis, negative hypothesis, choice, and conclusion - together with the disease measles, who talked to X and advised him on his career and life.

"From a purely literary point of view, many will say that the play is probably not the most interesting," said Bascaule, who admitted that the work looks more like an exercise in style and syllogisms with its written repetitions of administrative jargon and recurring paragraph forms.

"However, it is small changes in the repetitions that come to enrich the text," explained the director.

For instance, in the play, the word "société" is used, then replaced with "enterprise," then "consortium" and then "trust," inferring a change in the company while the situation of the employee remains static. Meanwhile, "Miss Yolande" later becomes "Madame Yolande," a hint that life flows on around X.

Director William Bascaule

One actress Jiang Le

Thought-provoking

Different understandings of the meaning of the French word "société" may lead to different interpretations of the play, according to Bascaule. He added that the word can mean society (la société), a company (une société), and even a game played by a group of people (jeu de société).

Jiang Le, one of the actresses in L'Augmentation, was also in L'Amant last year. She says the new play posed more of a challenge for her.

"Compared with L'Amant, I am required to follow a more exaggerated method of acting," said Jiang. "For most of the time, what I present is the complaining X, but sometimes I'll mimic the boss's response to X, which is the most interesting part for me."

Bascaule said the play is a product of its era, when the postwar boom was on the wane, and that the writer wanted people to reflect on society. The director said it would resonate with a modern audience.

Date: Friday and Saturday, January 23 and 24, 7:30 pm; Sunday and January 25, 3 pm

Venue: Alliance Française de Shanghai

Address: 297 Wusong Road

吴淞路297号

Tickets: 10 yuan ($1.61)

Call 6357-5388 for details