How do you find fulfillment? It’s different for everyone: some find it through their job, kids, passion projects, hobbies. But what happens when you can’t find that thing that fills you up? Or what used to give you that sense of fulfillment no longer does? The characters in Abe Koogler’s Fulfillment Centre are desperately trying to figure that out. Truly a modern tragedy, the characters of Koogler’s play are as empty as the shipment boxes they’ve been hired to fill, and they’re lost in the aisles of adulthood trying to complete themselves.

Somewhere in the desert of New Mexico, just a little ways from Albuquerque, there’s a fulfillment centre. Alex has recently taken over as a shift manager, when Suzan comes in with an application to work the holiday rush. Suzan’s on her way to Maine, but with a car that crapped out and no money, she needs this job to help her get the car fixed so she can be on her way. At her campsite, she meets John, another down-on-his-luck fellow currently living out of his car after being kicked out by his latest girlfriend. Meanwhile Alex’s girlfriend Madeleine has packed up their New York apartment and has moved to New Mexico with dreams of her and Alex getting to settle down in Seattle. But when Alex’s numbers start to slip and Suzan can’t keep up with the high pressure of holiday orders, things begin to unravel.

Nick Blais’ set design is downright masterful; I’ve never seen square shipping boxes used in such unique ways. Individual boxes become tables, chairs, bar stools, and cupboards, while some are used in tandem to be the hood or headlights of a car. Not only is this an inventive way to have a small space become many locations, it also reinforces the constant presence that the fulfillment centre occupies in the minds of most of the characters. The road-like flooring likewise serves multiple purposes, as it mirrors the open highways around Albuquerque and the inner pathways for the robots and workers in the large warehouse. Detailed and innovative, the set compliments Fulfillment Centre perfectly.

Koogler truly has distilled our modern sense of malaise into the experiences and lives of these four characters. Suzan is a failed musician, who still lives the couch-surfing carefree lifestyle, even though it’s now to her detriment. John is a struggling alcoholic, whose life gets turned upside down by each girlfriend who kicks him out. I doubt Alex’s dream was to be some kind of team leader in a warehouse. And Madeleine is very vocal about how this new life in New Mexico just isn’t up to snuff. All of these characters had drive and purpose at one point, and yet we’re seeing them in this total phase of detached submission. Rampant capitalism forces folks like Suzan to take on jobs which she isn’t truly able to physically do with the promise of a quick buck for a limited amount of time. While Madeleine and John are trapped in their vices and romantic relationships. No one in Fulfillment Centre feels fulfilled, happy, or even content. Rather, their subdued acceptance of their situation is a sentiment which most people can honestly relate to. We’ve all had that job we needed to keep, or that relationship we stayed in too long, because the stability was too good to pass up, regardless of the hollowness we feel at the end of the day. Fulfillment Centre shows us these feelings up close and personal, wrapped in a story which leaves you hoping things will get better for these characters…somehow.

Kristen Thomson leads this brilliant cast as Suzan. Thomson brings a natural charm and vivacity to Suzan which makes her undeniably affable. You want the best for Suzan, and Thomson allows us to see the best in her character. Emilio Vieira’s Alex is easy to empathize with as he attempts to navigate so many life changes at once. Gita Miller plays Alex’s girlfriend Madeleine with an impressive ferocity. Madeleine is the only character I struggled to fully sympathize with, and yet Miller gives her a vulnerable side that’s impossible to ignore. Evan Buliung gives a stellar performance as John; at times muffled and quiet and in others brash and nearly violent, Buliung takes this character to his extremes.

Fulfillment Centre indirectly asks us larger questions about our lives through the snippets we see from these characters. Are we happy? Or at least content? What in our life makes us feel a sense of fulfillment? I think unfortunately there are fewer people in our society who would actually have an answer to that question. Outside of work and trying to keep up a home life, where is there time for something to give us that feeling of contentment? How can we carve out time for what makes our hearts sing? Or will we be forever travelling the road, looking for the next thing or person to make us feel whole again?

Fulfillment Centre runs at The Coal Mine Theatre until December 7. For more information and tickets, visit: https://www.coalminetheatre.com/fulfillment-centre

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Cover Photo: Evan Buliung and Kristen Thomson in Fulfillment Centre. Photo by Elana Emer.

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