POST-DEMOCRACY – REVIEW OF NEW PLAY BY HANNAH MOSCOVITCH AT TARRAGON THEATRE

Reviewed by James Karas

A new play by Hannah Moscovitch is something to anticipate and cheer about. Post-Democracy, now playing at the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto, has a lot to cheer about but it is also a short play (one  hour) that hits you over the head and sends you home. 

In a program note, Moscovitch tells us that Pot-Democracy is about “the 1% who hold and exert power in our culture.” Most of us have heard and know of them without having any contact with any of them but Moscovitch “hung around”  them in her 20s.

The title tells us that democracy is finished and after its demise the world will be or is run by and for the benefit of the super wealthy. That may have been true for some time and the dictum that the United Sates has the best Congress that money can buy is indisputable.

The 1% in Post Democracy is represented by a family that runs a large publicly-traded company. Bill (Diego Matamoros) is the Chief Executive Officer and his fifth cousin Lee (Jesse LaVercombe) is the Chief Operating Officer. Bill’s adopted daughter Justine (Chantelle Han) is the Chief Financial Officer who is also seriously involved in philanthropy in Africa, travelling in her private jet.

Jesse LaVercombe and Diego Matamoros. Photo: Mike Meehan 

That’s the situation but now we need conflict, tension and plot development. Bill is looking at his cellphone while shuffling his feet around the stage. We will later find out that he is suffering from cancer and he wants to appoint Lee as a temporary CEO. They are in South America to purchase a company that they consider essential for the success of their own corporation. There are some problems. Lee is a sexual predator and he has sex with an underage girl in the hotel where they are staying and trying to close the deal. The young  girl was sent to his hotel room as a gift by the company they want to purchase. It is a grotesque encounter.

There is a culture of sexual impropriety in the company and Bill warns Lee to stay away from from Shannon (Rachel Cairns), the attractive human relations manager who is with them. Bill may be bothered by the animalistic behaviour of Lee and the stories of sexual impropriety in the company but his main interest is keeping it under tabs using non-disclosure agreements with the victims and keeping the news away from the press. The acquisition of the South American company is most important.

Shannon had a troubled childhood and was sexually abused by her stepfather. She engages in a lengthy, enthusiastic and graphic sexual scene with Lee. The moral code of Bill’s company is somewhere between the gutter and the sewer.

Justine does claim to have a moral compass even if she is in her private jet caring about abused girls and she does demand that her father fire Lee.

Rachel Cairns and Jesse LaVercombe. Photo: Mike Meehan

We hear enough and may think we know the conduct of some of the creeps from the 1% sliver of the population but Moscovitch paints them with a quick and broad brush without much detail. She gives herself only one hour and that may not be enough time to produce much more than stereotypes. Lee is a heavy-drinking, swaggering monster who rationalizes that these people (the girls) are paid for what they do, that they have no opportunities and there are millions of prostitutes in the world. He did notice the blood on the girl after their encounter but his morality registered nothing because he has no morality to move the needle. LaVercombe does superb work as the cool. ambitious businessperson and sexual pig. The girl was sent to Bill’s room but he refused her. Was it because of his moral code or because he was contemplating his mortality after the diagnosis of cancer? He does almost nothing about his company’s lax sexual conduct code.

The money and power attached to the purchase of the South American corporation wash away all moral compunctions. Justine’s moral concerns are assuaged in a way that becomes someone in the 1% and you may want to find out about it when you see the play. Han gives a powerful performance.

The set by Teresa Przybylski is an aggressively white room with a red sofa and a portable bar. The bar is needed for Lee and Shannon to drink until they become roaringly drunk. The large red couch can be used for many things. Excellent and economic design.

Director Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu keeps a brisk pace as we go through the confrontations among the characters. Moscovitch goes for the jugular and Otu follows suit. I would have preferred a more deliberate pace and a more substantial script to represent the rulers of our post-democracy world but Moscovitch does deliver the punches.

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Post-Democracy by Hannah Moscovitch continues until December 4, 2022, at the Tarragon Theatre, 30 Bridgman Ave. Toronto, Ontario.  www.tarragontheatre.com