Person Spec review – disturbing show puts audience on an interview panel

Alphabetti theatre, Newcastle
In Alfie Heffer's frightening play, theatregoers become recruitment reps as a candidate is put through her paces

In the late 1800s, Frederick Winslow Taylor set about codifying the labour of the workforce in the paper mill and steel industries. His analysis, published in The Principles of Scientific Management, was designed to extract maximum yield from what became known as a human resource. The philosophy of Taylorism ushered in a thankless era of management exploitation.

Throw in a bit of computer knowhow and the logical result of this managerialism is Person Spec, an initially daft and ultimately disturbing one-woman show that you would call dystopian if it were not so crushingly familiar.

At Alphabetti theatre, Newcastle, until 18 March.