The Gronholm method

Description

The last candidates to obtain an executive position in a multinational undergo the final test of the selection process. A joint test in which the procedure proposed by the company becomes a combat where cunning, cruelty and lack of scruples seem to have no limits. How far will they be willing to go to achieve what they have always dreamed of? After premiering "The Grönholm Method", more than fifteen years ago, friends and acquaintances told me many of their own experiences in selection processes. In light of some experiences, the conclusion is that I fell short in my comedy. The twisted games to which the psychologists of my fictitious company subjected the applicants were trifles compared to some real anecdotes. The background, however, was the same. How far are we willing to go to get the job of our dreams?

Where are our limits when the reward is high enough? Here we laugh at them, we feel their ridicule, we think that we would never go to such extremes, but... A very sensible friend who was applying for a position as a clerk in a shoe store told me that in the middle of the interview the manager told her that if she wanted work turned its back and prayed aloud an Our Father. So, no more. My friend confessed to me that she needed the job, that she knew the Lord's Prayer and, after thinking about it for a couple of seconds, she got up, turned around and prayed it. What would you have done? The idea of ​​“The Grönholm method” was born from a real anecdote. In a wastebasket, a journalist accidentally found the discarded files of aspiring supermarket cashiers. In them, the person in charge of the interviews had written down his impressions of each candidate. The journalist did a report on it and transcribed some of his notes. They were of the type "not this one, because she's fat", "moraca, she doesn't even know how to shake hands", "sucks", etc.

The news made me think about the relationship between someone who needs a job and someone who has the power to provide it. A situation in which the applicant tries to show the best side of himself, or at least the side he thinks is expected of him, and the interviewer tries to find out who is in front of him and if he is the type of person she needs. A game of trickery and cunning that, taken to the limit, became this comedy. A game that we have all played before. We have all been examined in one way or another and I think that is the main reason why "The Grönholm Method", in these more than fifteen years that have passed since its premiere, has been performed in sixty-odd countries and continues recovering. We all feel identified with the dilemmas that the characters go through, we put ourselves in their place and deep down we doubt how far we could go if the reward is high enough. By the way, that interviewer from the supermarket, after the report, was fired for lack of ethics, but if instead of having written "not this one, because she is fat", he had written down "the profile of the candidate does not fit the position" there would have been news and nothing would have happened, although the reality would continue to be the same, that he did not take her for fat.

JORDI GALCERÁN

ARTISTIC SHEET

Cast: LUIS MERLO: Fernando JORGE BOSCH: Carlos MARTA BELENGUER: Mercedes ISMAEL MARTINEZ: Enrique Direction: Tamzin Townsend Author: Jordi Galceran

DATA SHEET

Production: Carlos Larrañaga Ay you.

Production: Andres Belmonte Ay you.

Direction: Chema Rodriguez Set design: Anna Tusell

Lighting design: Felipe Ramos Costume design: Gabriela Salaverri Music: Andres Belmonte

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