The Breakroom

The Breakroom (1580/1582) is a full-length written by Onawean  Chibenashi Malek-Fallon in the winter of 1580, composed between And on the Sixth Day (1579) and The Attendant (1580). After the initial commercial failure of And on the Sixth Day in 1579, due to critical responses citing its content as "politically insensitive" in relation to its portrayal of fictional characters in real events which took place in an attempted coup which took place earlier that year, Malek-Fallon chose to put the play aside, but would later re-read, edit, and ultimately direct its first live production in 1582. It would open on [DATE] at the Dewje'og Bock Theatre.

Setting
The play is set entirely within a staff breakroom within an unnamed spa (or massage parlour). The establishment is considered to be of quality, but not of an incredibly remarkable sort. Business is implied to have been reduced lately, but is starting to pick up again, to the surprise of the veteran staff, as a new hire (Aníbise) has been brought in by the new management. It is also said to be located on a block of storefronts in the older part of a unspecified city, located between a firearms and sporting goods dealer, a health store, and a bank. A block of apartments are atop the stores, which are "quiet most of the time, except for when the or  is on, especially when the Myrish team is playing". The neighborhood the stores are located in are considered to be undergoing a process of slow urban renewal, which the cast is seemingly skeptical of.

Synopsis
Gíshkátig, the Assistant Manager of a spa (or massage parlour) faces challenges to their professionalism and sanity as they struggle to balance the experiences they and the rest of their staff have acquired with the expectations placed upon them by a new proprietor. While both employers are only spoken of and do not actually appear in the production, the cast struggles to reconcile their fond memories of a manager which in many ways exhibited abusive behavior and egregious character flaws towards them, while also running a well-respected establishment and ultimately treating them as well as they assumed they could get, with an atmosphere of uncertainty and mistrust towards a new, almost universally more likable figure that has stepped in during a period of difficulty for the establishment. Aníbise, a young new hire for the business which did not work under the former employer, also works to overcome the strong personalities of her senior coworkers while attempting to introduce new ideas in an attempt to improve the chances of the business' survival, to varying degrees of success.

List of characters

 * Gíshkátig, the assistant manager
 * Ojíbik, the secretary
 * Nika, a female masseuse
 * Siosúre, a female masseuse
 * Bodow, a male masseuse
 * Leathan, a male masseuse
 * Aníbise, a new hire

Critical reception and interpretation
Like his earlier works, including And on the Sixth Day, the play has been often interpreted as a, indictment of heirarchical power structures and a "myth of governmental infallibility". In The Breakroom, his target is seen in this case institutional, with a specific aim to show persons in positions of authority as "ultimately being just as confused and as wary of the same day-to-day minutia and petty mistakes that any person faces, but additionally facing the problem of their mistakes having greater consequence for people who put their trust in them". Unlike some of his earlier plays, it is notably more subtle in its perceived messaging, relying more heavily on than fictionalizations of actual events as was seen in some of his more overtly socio-politically rooted productions. The choice to have neither the former nor current proprietor of the establishment appear as a character outside of dialogue by the cast has been interpreted as telling of Malek-Fallon's ideals, with the characters being tasked to handle the day-to-day operations of the establishment while the employer is seen as an aloof and somewhat distant character, though for ultimately different reasons.