Review: A Startling THE MODERATE at Central Square Theater

The pandemic left many living behind masks, working from home, and feeling isolated without the human connections of everyday life.

In playwright Ken Urban’s not-to-be-missed “The Moderate” – set in 2020–21 and being given a visually arresting premiere by Central Square Theater in a Catalyst Collaborative @ MIT production through March 1 – Frank Bonner (Nael Nacer), a recently laid-off retail worker, is one of those whose lives were upended. Kicked to the curb by Kohl’s, Frank finds himself trying to keep pace in an ever-changing world.

He goes back to school online to finish his college degree, only to accumulate debt. When he keeps this mounting worry from his wife Edyth (Celeste Oliva), it becomes a wedge between them and their teenaged son and leads Frank to take a modestly paying job as a content moderator for a social media company not specifically named as Facebook, but certainly suggestive of the behemoth.

One might assume that the content moderation used to cull objectionable imagery and racist messaging from social media is handled by AI, but Urban explores the harsh reality that some determinations require human involvement. Frank is hired to be part of a worldwide workforce of moderators who scan streaming content and delete whatever they deem inappropriate. We see here that “Facebook jail” isn’t only for those who commit social media transgressions. Content moderators are also prisoners of a sort, trapped in all manner of horror that virtual strangers seem eager to share online.

Director Jared Mezzocchi – with impressive support from assistant projections designer Emery Frost, scenic designer Sybil Wickersheimer, and lighting designer Kevin Fulton – has created a view of the world that is both repugnant and hard to look away from, thanks to his breathtaking multimedia design dominated by vast, overlapping screens that fill three sides of the theater and drive home the contemporary drama’s message. (Recommended for audiences 17 and over, “The Moderate” includes mature themes and images, with video and audio depictions of violence, nudity, and racism.)

The outstanding cast is top-lined by Nacer – one of Boston’s most respected stage actors, who appeared in this season’s off-Broadway hit “Meet the Cartozians” and was also seen on Broadway in 2024’s “Prayer for the French Republic,” reprising a role he first played in 2023 at the Huntington – as the good-natured Frank, who internalizes his struggles with aging, marital discord, and a taxing new job.

The production also features multilayered performances by Greg Maraio as Martin, Frank’s expedient supervisor, and Jules Talbot as Rayne, his tart-tongued younger colleague, both of whom bring compelling dimensions to their roles.

Sean Wendelken is haunting as Gus, a young person whose alarmingly detailed video messages catch Frank’s attention and inspire him to want to do what’s right in his new position. Oliva – a well regarded local actor now based in New York – plays Edyth with appropriate detachment, keeping her character’s rage at Frank and his role in their faltering relationship at a simmer.

A Drama Desk Award-winning playwright, screenwriter, and musician, Urban, senior lecturer on theater and Director of Dramatic Writing at MIT, is known to Boston theater audiences for 2015's "A Future Perfect" at SpeakEasy Stage Company, and  the Huntington’s 2017 production of “A Guide for the Homesick.” Like the latter, intimate, single-act, 75-minute play, although very differently focused on detachment, the startling emotional impact of this 80-minute work will also leave a lasting impression.