The U.S. premiere of White Pearl is a short, but enjoyable ride that dives beneath the surface of power and social conflict, exploring colorism, racism, sexism, capitalism, and corporate culture.

When an unreleased ad for a skin whitening cream goes viral, and not in a good way, beauty start-up company Clearday goes into crisis mode. At their Singapore headquarters, six employees scramble to trace the source of the leak. But in between tears and finger pointing, the women struggle with how to address the problem.

For one thing, they don’t all agree it’s that bad. Won’t their target audience see the ad for what it is: a joke? For another thing, someone is definitely getting fired. The question is who.

The video in question is undeniably racist, but discrimination in this play takes many forms—some more subtle than others. Inside the office, microaggressions run rampant as staff members hurl stinging comments about each other’s backgrounds, education, and authenticity as Asian women. The characters are South Korean, Indian, Thai, Japanese, Chinese, and Singaporean. There’s also a French dude named Marcel (Zachary Fall), but he comes in a little later, bringing his own shitstorm of trouble.

Largely taking place during one enormously bad day, this one act production directed by Desdemona Chang moves quickly. The set is designed by Debra Booth with drama in mind. Explosive moments are bigger thanks to her smart set pieces.

In Anchuli Felicia King’s sharp script, tension is broken by a peppering of physical humor and one liners that make this dark comedy as funny as it is uncomfortable. The jabs don’t only come from women. Intimate partner abuse adds to the tension in scenes that pit one of the queen bees of the office, Thai rich girl Built (Diana Huey), against a jilted lover who is creative as he is frightening in his diabolical quest for control.

Toxic corporate culture and deep seated biases bubble over as the women of Clearday wring their hands and hurl discriminatory remarks at one another. Everyone has their scapegoat to blame for the day’s events, but no one is truly the villain or a saint. Like real people, these characters are complicated, and the cast embodies them completely and believably.

Boss lady Priya (Shanta Parasuraman) is disparaging of her South Korean and Chinese employees, who she believes lack the superior worldview she’s gained through Western education. Poor Xiao (Jenna Zhu) can’t stop crying, both because the ad screw-up is largely her fault, and because her family is in hot water back in China.

South Korean chemist Soo-Jin (Narea Kang) is an older sister figure who consoles Xiao as she wails on the bathroom floor. But while her kindness toward her distraught colleague is endearing, she also defends offensive personal viewpoints on race and ethnicity. Meanwhile, sweet office manager Ruki (Resa Mishina) is trying to be helpful and avoid conflict. Sunny (Jody Doo) is happy to sacrifice Xiao to the incensed board, but for now she just wants to get an apology statement out before this global controversy sinks their growing company.

Those who prefer plays to be tied up with a pretty bow in the end may leave feeling unsatisfied. But while White Pearl doesn’t resolve every problem, it raises complex, important questions with humor, honesty, and nuance. It doesn’t ask for much in its 100 minutes on stage, but it gives you a lot in this refreshingly digestible peek into one corner of our beautiful, messed up world.

White Pearl runs at Studio Theatre through Dec. 8 15. $20-$111. Runtime approximately 100 minutes with no intermission.

This post has been updated with the extended run for White Pearl.