GADIANTON, by Eric Samuelson; produced by the Brigham Young University Department of Theatre & Film, directed by Bob Nelson. Continues at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday through Feb. 8 with one matinee at 2 p.m. on Saturday in the Margetts Arena Theater, Harris Fine Arts Center, BYU. Tickets: $7 for students, $8 for senior citizens and $9 for adults, available through the Performing Arts Ticket Office, 378-4322. Running time: 2 hours.
Corporate moguls take heed, Eric Samuelson's "Gadianton" may just be your undoing.
Forget the meager set, the unpadded chairs, and that the theater is two stories underground; this production should be seen by anyone ever affected by - or who knows someone affected by - corporate downsizing. That's pretty much the entire Wasatch Front.
Samuelson has put together a masterful collage of thought-provoking storylines that leaves one questioning their own ethics. From the moment Fred Whitmore, an efficiency consultant, played by Benjamin Hoppe, enters the stage, the audience is very aware this play is going to be different.
A word of warning, although representations are not meant to reflect any one real person, I would have been very uncomfortable if any former or current officials from Word Perfect, Novell and other high-tech companies were in the audience. Direct reference to Microsoft magnate Bill Gates is common throughout the play.
Whitemore's ultimate mission is to streamline ONTI Enterprises, located in St. George, raise the value of the stock and prepare the company for a future merger or sale.
Whitmore's first challenge is to change CEO Mohonri Ward's (played by Tim Slover) "Joseph Smith" attitude of teaching correct principles and letting the company and employees govern themselves. Whitmore snips, "That has a nice Tom Peters ring to it."
Religion comes into play when ONTI's mail-room supervisor, LDS Bishop McKay Todd, played by Jason Tatom, hires on several members of his congregation and watches as they climb the corporate ladder, just to slide down. Whitmore also admits he "took the lessons, then took the bath" so he would be one of the community. Why, in San Diego he took up golfing!
Whitmore "gets his" when his LDS stake president calls him to be the stake drama director. Whitmore, and his equally obnoxious wife, played by Megan Sanborn, choose as the next stake drama, a ditty called, what else, "Gadianton."
Samuelson makes the famous Book of Mormon robber look like he is really no different than most upwardly mobile business people today. Isn't the bottom line to "get gain"? Whitmore is the only one to see Gadianton, a white shirt, tie and armor-clad ghost, who concurs and congratulates Whitmore's method. Those methods the author calls "Gadiantonisms."
When it's obvious that hundreds of layoffs will occur, Whitmore encourages leadership to not refer to it as downsizing. "Those who use the term downsizing don't know a business cycle from a Schwinn. We are right-sizing."
For Helen Bryson, ONTI's head of media relations, the goal is to smile while being as vague as possible. This goes against all her principles, but it's her job. For what its worth, the Bryson character is "right on" in representing the world of media relations.
While the "involuntary payroll reduction" is implemented, Bishop Todd is trying to juggle the many personal and financial problems of his own family and of his ward members. His final decisions come as no surprise, but I question if it truly reflects reality.
The plight of the St. George "downwinders" also weaves itself throughout the play and is a personal issue to Todd, who has lost three family members to cancer and hears word his brother has it. Vignettes of downwinders Wilson Hackett and Erma Mack-el-pranger give the audience insight to the day-to-day struggles with "St. George's disease."
All of this sounds really heavy, but Samuelson has cleverly woven humor into the piece. For instance the bishop's wife, Karen, is trying to be just like the "perfect" sister in the ward and complains that "Bibi" is the only one who doesn't use ice when making Jell-O.
The production was cast perfectly. Everyone played their character well.
It is going to be a long time before this critic shakes off the effects of "Gadianton." Hopefully, I never will.