It took a whopping seven writers, four directors and three producers to come up with “We Play for the Gods.” But rather than an embarrassment of riches, this new show by the Women’s Project Lab is aimless — it’s as if the 14-headed creator couldn’t decide what she wanted to say.
The sole highlight is the wonderful Annie Golden (“The Shaggs,” “The Full Monty”), whose stern office drone, Marla, lives by ingrained rules and habits. Unsurprisingly, Marla doesn’t take well to the bumbling Susan (Irene Sofia Lucio), a lousy new temp with an MFA in poetry.
They both work for “a world- renowned research institute dedicated entirely to the study of human behavior,” briskly run by Lisa (Erika Rolfsrud). This caricature of a power exec is trying to make money off research on tears, led by an inexplicably dispirited scientist (Amber Gray).
As if this weren’t whimsical enough, a trickster goddess billed as Provocatrix disrupts the workplace via pranks and interpretive dancing. Where’s the Department of Labor when you need it?
Provocatrix acts as an invisible inspiration to our poetess, though unlike the muses from “Xanadu,” this sprite doesn’t break into ELO’s “Evil Woman.”
Part office comedy, part supernatural caper and part satire of corporate mores, “We Play for the Gods” flounders at all of them. Sadly, this is a show where a lot boils down to very little.