How Am I Doing Today? – GrimFest / Old Red Lion Playhouse, London

Darkly comedic, full of noughties hits, and instantly recognisable to anyone who’s ever had a customer service job, Sort Sol Theatre Company’s How Am I Doing Today? is a real treat.

How Am I Doing Today?

‘Tis the season! Not quite that season yet. Halloween season. Having been to my first spooky theatre event of the year last week, I followed it up with a trip to the Old Red Lion Playhouse to see How Am I Doing Today? This new short work by Sort Sol Theatre Company, is on as part of GrimFest, “a celebration of dark & twisted theatre in the bleeding heart of London”, now in its fifth year. Perfect!

I was saying in my post last week that psychological horror is my favourite flavour of the genre. Let me add another: horror-comedy. It is into this second category that How Am I Doing Today? falls.

Georgy Pleece’s play follows Leonard (Alexander McGonagle), who works in customer services for a delivery retailer. It’s hell. The customers are awful. The surveys are more likely to lead to disciplinary action than the monthly prize of a candyfloss machine. And the boss (played by Pleece) appears to have spent far too much time watching David Brent motivational videos. On the plus side, there’s Kelly (Phoebe Mercer), who’s as sweet as the chocolate biscuits she dreams of taste testing. And, somehow, the minutes, hours and days do pass.

Then comes a phone call from a mysterious customer. Leonard is intrigued. When the caller offers unlimited five-star reviews and a promotion, it seems too good to be true. Which, as horror afficionados know, usually means it is.

The Horror of the Workplace

I don’t want to spoil too much of the story, so I will leave the plot there. What I will say is that Pleece’s absurdist take on the familiar idea that we don’t need to go to hell because we’re already there landed very well with the GrimFest audience. The humour is so surreal that it constantly catches you off guard, while the additional characters taken on by Pleece and Mercer only heighten the absurdity. Yet it all remains recognisable. If you’ve ever had to placate an irate customer, smile at a senior colleague’s unfunny jokes, or invent ways to make the working day pass a little faster, you’ll find something to relate to here.

The other thing that makes this work sing is the cast’s absolute commitment to the material. Directed by Elizabeth Huskisson, founder of Sort Sol Theatre, the production maintains a consistently high energy, with the tension carefully balanced between comedy and horror. Even the scene changes become part of the entertainment, with Pleece and Mercer dancing enthusiastically to noughties pop favourites. Between other scenes we are treated to voicemails from more ridiculous customers. The production design by Emily Louise M. Somerville also gets in on the act, with towers of boxes and piles of post-its. A more restrained approach simply wouldn’t land nearly as well.

As you can probably tell, I really enjoyed How Am I Doing Today? It’s only on until tomorrow night (21 October), but I hope this won’t be its only outing. It feels like a new direction for Sort Sol Theatre, while maintaining the high standard I have come to expect from this company. I’m already looking forward to seeing what they do next.

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 4/5

How Am I Doing Today? on until 21 October 2026 as part of GrimFest, which runs until 31 October. More info and tickets here.