Review: iTheatre Collaborative Presents Aaron Loeb's IDEATION

With every passing day, a cloud of existential crises looms over humanity: terrorism, famine, mass migrations, nuclear catastrophe, the extinction of land masses and species, and viral epidemics.

In each case, you may well ponder that somebody somewhere is contemplating them ~ assigned by some higher powers to formulate contingency plans for managing them.

Consider, however, that for each problem, the planners must calculate the costs to humanity ~ or preferred segments of humanity ~ of each proposed solution.

IDEATION, Aaron Loeb's dark psychological comedy about a group of corporate consultants, tasked with a project mysteriously titled SENNA, takes a wild, disturbing, and uncomfortable spin off this dystopian scenario.

The play, which premiered in 2016 to immediate acclaim, is iTheatre Collaborative's opener for its 20th Season. And, what a way to celebrate a company that has consistently gifted its audiences with quality thinking-person's productions!

The show packs a wallop with a cast that is as good as it gets, Greg Lutz's formidable direction, and a theme that is unsettlingly funny. You just know that you should not be laughing, but the possibility of the story's undertaking will give you the willies.

Upon their return from nailing a big deal in Greece, Ted (Christopher Haines), Brock (Phillip Herrington), and Sandeep (Sebastian Kunnappilly) have been called to brainstorm strategies that may save the human race. They enter a sanitized board room ~ set up with two whiteboards, colored markers, and a conference table) that has been prepared by their boss, Hannah (Carrie Ellen Jones) and her ingratiating underling, Scooter (Super Smack). (The credit for the set and light design is Haines's, the company's co-founder and omnipresent multi-tasker.)

Three ground rules for the session are posted on both whiteboards: First, No PowerPoint. There will be no documentation of the session other than notes to be recorded by Scooter. Second, the group is to "assume the worst." And third, "No N-word" (but not the N that you think.)

It isn't clear initially from what peril the group is to protect humanity. However, good corporate soldiers all, they take up the assignment with resolve.

They are to assume that a mass pandemic is under way. The infected need to be segregated from the rest of the population. As the virus increases in intensity, the demand may overwhelm the system. The very sick need to make room for new patients. What to do?

In an off-the-wall take on corporate problem-solving techniques (GANTT charts, flow-charts, risk assessment scales), Ted draws a systems diagram that maps the steps for crisis management: I.D. Collection. Containment. Liquidation. Disposal.

Yes, the team is on its way to planning for concentration camps and the calculus required for the secret and unobtrusive liquidation and disposal of the remains. The focus turns to the mathematics of genocide. In the modern age, what does it take to outdo the Nazis?

As their deliberations unfold, they suppress their better angels. Despite their doubts and discomfort, they are obeying orders. They dare not allow sentimentality to enter their equations. Brock, for one, epitomizes the kind of competitive achievement-oriented personality that will subordinate conscience to compensation. The others pursue the game with their own self-interests at stake.

The play turns Kafkaesque as team cohesion, such as it was, breaks down, paranoia sets in, and suspicions arise about intentions and loyalty within the group. As the scale and dimensions of their contingency plan becomes better defined, is it conceivable, they wonder, that, in this day and age, anyone would execute their plan? How would it remain a secret? And, if the plan were to be accepted, as Sandeep, in a chilling moment of epiphany asks, who would be the first among peoples to be selected for disposal? "Against dissidents. Against people who look like me. Against Mexicans or gays or whomever they want to use it against, in the name of whatever they are doing things in the name of. Country? Profit? God?"

If inconceivable, is the assignment perhaps merely a test of either the team's problem-solving acumen or their corporate loyalty? Maybe. Only the shadow of J.D., their unseen and demanding CEO, knows for sure. Only we in the audience can wonder if small groups in hideaway board rooms are contemplating final solutions.

Mr. Lutz has assembled a stellar cast, each of whose performances is well-defined, animated, and persuasive. Let us say their names again and applaud them for their gripping delivery of IDEATION: Carrie Ellen Jones, Christopher Haines, Phillip Herrington, Sebastian Kunnappilly, and Super Smack. Let us thank iTheatre Collaborative for bringing this provocative play to the stage.

As a piece of fiction, IDEATION's premise comes awfully close to reminding us of the excesses of past times and the banality of evil ~ the potential of bureaucrats and consultants to perform evil deeds without evil intentions, to disengage from the reality of their evil acts, and, all the while, advance their careers. Such was the case only eighty-eight years ago when another team, the Concentration Camps Inspectorate, assembled with the managerial authority to design the concentration camps of the Third Reich.

It is well that IDEATION reminds us of the vulnerability of our moral compass in times of storm and stress.

IDEATION runs through September 24th on the Kax Stage at the Herberger Theater Center in Phoenix.

iTheatre Collaborative ~ 602-321-7659 ~ https://itheatreaz.org/ ~ Venue: Kax Stage at the Herberger Theater Center, 222 E. Monroe Street ~ Herberger Box Office ~ 602-252-8497 or www.itheatreaz.org

Poster credit to iTheatre Collaborative

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