600 HIGHWAYMEN

The young Brooklyn-based theatre company 600 HIGHWAYMEN, under the artistic direction of Abigail Browde and Michael Silverstone, is known for working with amateur actors. «Employee of the Year» emanates a peculiar fascination: Five girls aged ten and eleven tell the crude life story of a woman named J, beginning at the age of 3 to the old age of 80. The touching drama of J and her lifelong search for her mother is inten- sified in an unsettling way by the young performers’ rendition: In firstperson narrative they speak rapidly, flawlessly and impassively as they perform minimalist movements on a bright white square of carpet that is the set. (kdi)