If you've ever watched The Office and thought the characters were exaggerated, yet still reminiscent of people with whom you've worked, then Richard Dresser's comedy Below the Belt is probably your cup of coffee -- black, no sugar or cream.

The 1995 play, given its Fort Worth professional premiere as the first show of Amphibian Stage Productions' summer season, is a side-splitting look at dog-eat-dog workplace politics.

In this case, the canines are a polycephalous breed, two-headed dogs munching on a single-skulled victim. What inspires their frequent word-twisting, backstabbing, lying and instigating is that yummy doggie treat that drives all power-seekers: the thrill of competition.

Hanrahan (Evan Mueller) and Dobbitt (Jonathan Fielding) are checkers at a manufacturing plant in an unnamed desert. They're both looking to move up, as is their boss, Merkin (Michael Muller), who sees his response to a specific workplace crisis as beneficial to his future. Too bad his future exists in Dresser's funhouse-mirror view of humanity.

Right off the bat, Hanrahan seems to have it in for Dobbitt, and forms an alliance with Merkin, not exactly his best friend. As Belt unravels, though, allegiances switch and the audience isn't sure who's going to end up with a promotion.

All three actors handle this guessing game with aplomb, never giving away secrets despite vivid facial expressions. It helps that Dresser's dialogue is funnier than anything you'll ever hear on some reality-TV show about corporate ladder-climbing.

Under David A. Miller's direction, Mueller, Fielding and Muller work sharply together, and off each other, like interlocking teeth on gear wheels of industrial-size machines that rarely need maintenance. Fielding's wide-eyed, blank-faced reactions are especially priceless.

Kathleen Anderson Culebro's scenic design gives the whole thing a dismal, end-of-the-world-and-we're-stuck-here feel, befitting of the dashed hopes of everyone who has ever tried to succeed but couldn't.

Below the Belt

Through July 16; 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays

Texas Christian University, Studio Theater, 2800 S. University Drive in Fort Worth

$10-$20

817-923-3012

www.amphibianproductions.org

GRADE: A-