The play Two and a Half Clowns, written by Jalal Tehrani (July-August 2004), is a work of black comedy set in a vast bureaucratic hall with a stage set.
The piece explores the decay of bureaucracy, power relations, the illusion of security, and the absurdity of administrative structures.
The Boss: The head of an enormous company, who constantly forgets his identity, the time, and his place in the corporate hierarchy, and is tormented by repeated danger sirens in the night.
Zito: A man with thick glasses and a hand always kept in a bulging pocket, who has either climbed through or fallen through every rank of the hierarchy, from warehouse keeper, transport manager, and gardener to CEO.
The Secretary: A woman who shuttles between the Boss’s office and her own desk, whose concerns are tangled up with dreams of marriage, money, and the everyday dramas of office life.