Werkaholics
Playwright: Vivian Nguyen
Director: Nicole Pingon
25A Belvoir
July 29 – August 17, 2025
The struggle for personal survival in the unhinged world of late capitalism is both playfully and painfully observed by playwright Vivian Nguyen in the wild and wonderful Werkaholics.
Her characters are working on it, but in the end, it is capitalism, bright and shiny, devious and murky, that is working on them.
Georgia Yenna Oom gives a sparkling performance as Lillian, the influencer, performing “her life” in curated excerpts for her internet followers. The on-show Lillian’s voice is excited, her smile radiant, her lipstick shiny, her perfect manicure flashing and above all, and most ironically, she projects spontaneity. She is stylish, rich and free to do as she pleases. The off-show Lillian is highly stressed and panicky. She is constantly planning her next pose or checking if there is any increase in her fans which might attract new products to promote.
Can Lillian really believe that by financing a fake wealthy lifestyle – manifesting – she is investing in a wealthy future? The practice is, as someone said, “capitalism in yoga pants” and best of all, no one is accountable if someone takes up the idea that “their poverty mindset is repelling abundance”.
A shadowy figure in terms of the play, Sage mysteriously embodies this theme as her declared job is a debt collector – metaphorically or maybe not. Hunched over her laptop and shut up in her room despite the protests of her nostalgic mum, Sage, to whose character Ruby Duncan brings a ruthless intensity, declares for responsibility but where to place her in the end?
Jillian, played with ingenuous charm by Shirong Wu, is Lillian’s best friend although more of lackey. When Jillian’s acting ambitions meet with failure, she becomes a test case. While Wu histrionically acts out Jillian’s disappointment in drooping posture and large despairing gestures, her distress is real. Once formerly critical of the socio-economic dangers of Lillian’s fakery to the point of on-line exposure, Jillian is tempted to become self-made in preference to being a service to be consumed. However, she is also courted by the seductive Sage.
There will be a showdown, and the survivors can’t be revealed. Remember that capitalism can always defeat its enemies by commodifying them.
Video projections by Harrison Hall and Daniel Herton make a vital contribution to the play by replicating the almost joyful madness of social media and the big part played in the present by the mobile either as a gun or a rose.
