Phil Wong, Sam Jackson, and Max Forman-Mullin Photo by David Allen

The environment at this company is incredibly toxic: Eva (linda maria girón) reports being regularly "mugged" in the company lunch room, and Howie (Max Forman-Mullin) and Jordan (Phil Wong) are two wannabe alpha bros who think "empathy" is some sort of bird. Seriously. Then there's Jon (Joseph O'Malley), the putter-wielding boss who has so little understanding of women that, not only does he have no compunction over asking the new empathy coach, Sofia (Sam Jackson), to "wear a dress," he has no idea what a woman's period is and is nauseated almost to the point of vomiting when it is explained to him. He is also not the least bit aware of how inappropriate his–and Howie's and Jordan's–repeated glee in the concept of "blow jobs without reciprocation" is.

Although Sofia is the closest thing Do You Feel Anger? has to a normal human being, she has her own issues: a mother whose repeated voice mails she refuses to return, even though it's her father who has confessed that he has a second wife and family and has left Sofia's mother in part because she didn't revel in the concept of non-reciprocal blow jobs.

Despite her personal life, Sofia tries her best to get Eva, Howie and Jordan to understand that empathy is not, in fact, a sort of bird, but the ability to understand another person's feelings. The concept is completely foreign to this dysfunctional work force. As Howie states (with a look on his face like someone has just tried to explain the basics of quantum physics), "I don't understand why someone else's feelings are more important than my own."

Eva, though a victim in all this, is clueless in her own way, which keeps her from connecting with Sofia. "I love your nails," she says, soon after Sofia arrives on the scene. "Are they from your hands?" Eva has been stuck in an abusive relationship for a decade, but suddenly breaks it off to take up with a man whose appearance late in the play is shocking in myriad ways.

Joseph O'Malley is appropriately creepy as a terrible manager. His Jon could have Pope Leo as his empathy coach and he still wouldn't get one whit closer to developing a sense of other people's needs and desires. O'Malley has imbued Jon with a sort of avian mien, strutting like a long-legged wading bird, poking his beak into any little crevicular opening in his employee's psyches he can find.

The cast is top-notch and are clearly having loads of fun playing these wounded but clueless humans. Phil Wong is one of the Bay Area's most brilliant comic actors, the sort who can elicit guffaws with the raise of an eyebrow or a seemingly subtle shift of body position. His energy and commitment to the role are undeniable. Forman-Mullin plays Howie like the playground bully who is deeply wounded and thinks nothing of abusing others in order to negate his suffering, without ever realizing that what he is inflicting is, in fact, pain. He's almost a Rand-ian objectivist who believes–without ever thinking about it–that his own needs trump those of everyone else. girón plays Eva with a sense of masochism that is so deeply held she barely realizes she is a victim. In a way, Do You Feel Anger? revolves around her character, given that Eva is both clueless victim and oblivious victimizer. Sam Jackson, who has the almost thankless job of playing a (relatively) normal human being, does a brilliant job of slowly falling victim to the toxic environment she was called in to fix.

Do You Feel Anger? is one of those strange works of art that can have a strong emotional impact on its audience. But unlike plays that bring laughter (although there are plenty of laughs here) or arouse sympathy or induce tears, Do You Feel Anger? left me feeling a bit at sea: confused, perplexed, dumbfounded, grasping for handholds on a deck heaving in rough waters. I was relieved to finally pull into port, thankful that most people are not the absurd oddities that inhabit the toxic space of Do You Feel Anger?.

Do You Feel Anger? runs through June 29, 2025, at Marin Theatre, 397 Miller Avenue, Mill Valley CA. Performances are Tuesdays-Sundays at 7:30pm, with matinees Saturdays and Sundays at 2:00pm. Tickets range from $47-$85 (plus fees). For tickets and information, please visit www.marintheatre.org or call the box office at 415-388-5208.