At time of fraught cultural politics, 2018 play “Do You Feel Anger?” reveals deeper relevance

BY SYDNEY MEYER

Untitled Louisville Theatre Company shines light on empathy in absurdist workplace comedy

Under the fluorescent lights of Jeffersonville’s NoCo Arts Center, the stale air of a nondescript conference room hangs over beige walls, a clean whiteboard, office chairs, and a long empty table. The set’s corporate dinginess is the post-modern equivalent of a blank canvas. Its simplicity allows Mara Nelson-Greenburg’s absurdist comedy, “Do You Feel Anger?” directed by Tory Parker to shine. From the opening scene, the cartoonish ensemble blasts through any expectation of standard office monotony with the energy of a paintball fight.

Crystian Wiltshire as Jordon, Bailey Preston as Eva, and Griffin Cobb as Howie in Untitled Louisville Theatre Company’s production of “Do You Feel Anger?”

Sophia (Ali Gautier), an empathy coach hired to run a workshop at a debt collection agency, has an unfaltering smile and a delicate approach to her work, where the agency’s employees are about to challenge her. Howie (Griffin Cobb), Jordan (Crystian Wiltshire), and Eva (Bailey Preston) don’t appear to understand what an emotion even is, so getting them to practice empathy for each other and the debtors they’re calling feels impossible. It doesn’t help that their boss, Jon (Ryan Lash), keeps pushing Sofia to end the workshop early so he can return the office to business as usual. Oh yeah, and Eva keeps getting mysteriously mugged in the kitchen.

“Do You Feel Anger?” premiered at Actors Theatre of Louisville’s 2018 Humana Festival during the first Trump administration. Then, there was a strident backlash and mounting attention to the Me Too movement. That cultural moment is apparent in the play’s boys' club culture, which treats sexual harassment as standard practice.

This is only Untitled Louisville Theatre Company’s second production – following their 2023 outing with Mindy Kaling’s “Matt and Ben.” But this selection shows the collective is particularly in tune with culture. At the beginning of Trump’s second presidential term, “Do You Feel Anger?” feels more relevant than ever. The show’s empathy training effectively parodies workplace diversity training, or DEI, which, despite being around since the 1960s, has become MAGA’s newest lightning rod.

Ali Gautier as Sofia in Untitled Louisville Theatre Company’s production of “Do You Feel Anger?”

Gautier’s Sophia approaches her work with a seemingly endless rope of patience. The men in this office need a babysitter more than an empathy coach. (Cobb, Wiltshire, and Lash’s commitment to their characters’ middle-school-esque immaturity is admirable.) Sophia commits to a meet-them-halfway philosophy. But over time, it becomes clear that what she perceives as patience more closely resembles pandering. It comes at a cost. Sophia prioritizes the men’s inching progress over Eva’s comfort. More than that, Sophia sacrifices her sense of self. She starts wearing dresses after insisting she prefers pants. Rather than continuously asserting that Jordan and Howie’s sexual advances make her uncomfortable, she creates a pretend boyfriend to discourage them. By the end, Eva is left wondering who Sophia empathizes with most.

Unlike comparable feminist plays of this era like Alice Birch’s “Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again,” the strong point of view in “Do You Feel Anger?” doesn’t devolve into an all-men-are-evil trope. While there is a tinge of finger-pointing in its thesis, the play is more interested in presenting a dilemma than assigning blame. Ultimately, the central question is if one can teach empathy at all.

Crystian Wiltshire as Jordon, Ryan Lash as Jon, and Griffin Cobb as Howie in Untitled Louisville Theatre Company’s production of “Do You Feel Anger?”

This question hits harder when placed in context. In 2018, there was a loud, unified, public-facing opposition to Trump’s presidency. In reaction to this and the 2020 killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, organizations invested in and expanded DEI training, workshops, and programs with the assertion that marginalized people face societal issues due to a lack of education among the general population. This philosophy assumes empathy is inherent. It is tact that must be learned. It doesn’t always account for the possibility that some people simply don’t care to be taught. In its second term, the Trump administration has dismantled many such programs with the swipe of a single signature. In 2025, the once vibrant opposition is noticeably quiet.

Where does this leave Sophia? Spoiler alert: She fails. The men in the office don’t progress to the point of extending empathy beyond anyone but themselves. Sophia learns meeting some people halfway means running a marathon. Her journey signals that knowing oneself means knowing who you are willing to meet, and how far you will go to meet them. When you throw in volatile cultural politics, these questions require reconsideration again and again.

Do You Feel Anger?

Untitled Louisville Theatre Company

Through Feb. 15

NoCo Arts Center

628 Michigan Ave., Jeffersonville, IN 47130

For more information: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php/?id=61550747325036

Sydney Meyer, a Louisville-based writer, holds an undergraduate degree in Theatre Arts from Boston University. After building affordable housing in Colorado with AmeriCorps, Sydney recently returned to her hometown. In addition to her work as a writer, she freelances as a social media manager.