Terry’s: An American Tragedy About Cars, Customers and Selling Cars to Customers is a curious confection of a show, whereby the pursuit of The American Drama, turns into a never-ending nightmare.
It’s Memorial Day weekend in Thessaloniki, Ohio, which is effectively a Bank Holiday Weekend. The staff of Terry’s Car Dealership are here to sell cars to people, in a respectful way, obviously.
The staff consists of four. There’s newcomer Kelly, French immigrant Henri, and ‘Ford girl’ Sheila. Managing them is ‘Major’ Tom, but the dealership is overseen by the titular Terry. He’s never seen, but his presence is all too present, holding power over his employees like an ever unsatisfied army captain.
It’s clear from the outset that the sales team are under immense pressure. They must sell 66 cars in four days, and it’s obvious that this is quite a demand. The successful achievement of this target is critical to the workers.
Henri needs to pay his immigration lawyer, as he pursues his application for US Citizenship. Kelly wants to secure a permanent position at the car lot. Tom wants to prove his worth. Sheila wants to be in the top 100 rankings for car salespeople in the country.
The setting makes use of a lot of the ‘red white and blue’ of classic American iconography. You could well think that you were at an American political rally, such is the amount of bunting, ticker tape and balloons on display.
And then there’s the pep. Part of Tom’s role is to build up the team, to pump them up before they are released onto the car lot to engage with potential customers. The build up takes different forms. There’s drumming, and a bell that is rung every time a sale is made.
Then there’s the adverts that are placed onto a local TV station. These become increasingly desperate as the weekend continues, and the car sales are slow. The tone turns frantic.
Interspersed with this, are the individual tales of the staff. There are some, mostly unaccompanied, songs. This works really well. The cast aren’t drowned out by an overly loud track in a small room, and you can actually hear the lyrics.
The performers have a fluidity to their performance that reflects on their common training at Lecoq. It gives a gracefulness to the entire performance that makes it at times seem almost balletic.
In the end, the requirements of capitalism are overcome. But only temporarily. The wheel starts again, almost immediately, leaving the smallest amount of hope dashed.
The show is set in the late 1990s, and so seems like a more innocent time. It is all too obvious that, if the show were set now, the tone would be much more ruthless. As it is, we can see where the ‘late stage capitalism’ we are currently experiencing had some of its roots.
A well produced story, with well drawn characters, this is a cautionary tale. The customer may always be right, but the staff will say anything to sell you that late model Ford Bronco.
Terry’s: An American Tragedy About Cars, Customers and Selling Cars to Customers continues at Beside in Pleasance Courtyard, at 12:55 daily, until August 25 (not 19).
Featured Image courtesy of Chloe Nelkin Consulting
