Like a latter-day "Modern Times" for the technological age, Josh Kornbluth's brilliant
satirical comedy "Haiku Tunnel" depicts the plight of clerical proletarians. Josh, a part-time
novelist and full-time temporary worker, is hired by a corporate law firm headed by Bob
Shelby, a Mephistophelian tax attorney. The head secretary Marlina D'Amore - played with
icy glee by Helen Schumaker (her entrances are accompanied by comical wind-storm sound
effect) - introduces Josh to his duties. When the firm decides to make Josh a "perm," the
change throws him out of his Zenlike trance, and his productivity disintegrates.

Harry Shearer appears in a great cameo as a sadistic orientation leader. Warren Keith as
Shelby will remind you of every corporate type you've ever met whose brain has been
ossified by sniffing the thin air of high-rise offices. Brian Keith Russell's brief appearance
as a toothpick-chomping security guard is also a funny take on every slave-to-authority
rent-a-cop.

Developed for years as a stage monologue, "Haiku Tunnel" was later published in 1996
along with an account of Kornbluth's experience as the child of communist parents. That
personal background is evident in this insightful, class-conscious satire, while the theatrical
background is clear in the finely tuned storytelling. Kornbluth is a delight in his cross
between Buddha, Kafka and Dilbert. Anyone who has ever worked in clerical jobs - indeed,
anyone who has ever worked any sort of mind-numbing job so prevalent in our
service-based economy - will identify with and thoroughly enjoy this splendid comedy.