We didn’t need a play to realize the bottomless depths to Rupert Murdoch’s depravity, but such a figure is rich for drama. In the capable hands of playwright J.T. Rogers and hitmaker director Bartlett Sher, it’s a mighty fine one.
Lincoln Center Theater’s Corruption, based on Murdoch and his media empire, pushes past the all-too-common dramatized stereotypes and depictions of newsroom culture and incisively cuts to the quick of unethical journalism practiced by some bad players.
Dial M for Murdoch: News Corporation and the Corruption of Britain serves as the basis for this David and Goliath tale that pits Tom Watson (Toby Stephens), a member of Parliament against Rupert’s son, James Murdoch (Seth Numrich), Executive of NewsCorp, and Rebekah Brooks (Saffron Burrows), a bigwig media executive who climbed the ranks to become the youngest editor of a British newspaper. The crime? Phone hacking and bribery of numerous British politicians, celebrities, and ordinary citizens in the nineties and early aughts.
Rogers crafts another epic, sprawling work as he did in his Tony Award-winning play Oslo (about the Israeli-Palestinian peace accords). One that is Shakespearean in scope and finessed with style and humor. Over twelve actors portray the real-life characters upon which this story was based. Program notes suggest that Rogers took poetic license in the retelling. Still, ultimately, this reinforces one of the major elements here, which is the disclosure and reporting of truth over exaggerations and flat-out lies. Take this confrontation between Watson and Tom Crone (Dylan Baker), Murdoch’s lawyer:
CRONE: You cannot win You are fighting a war that is already over. Because the world that you are fighting for no longer exists. Government, privacy, truth: these are malleable now. To be changed, or discarded, as those above us see fit.
TOM: And is this new world to your liking, Tom?
CRONE: Immaterial. It simply is the world in which we live.
TOM: I can see why Uncle Rupert keeps you around. Neither of you seem to actually believe in anything.
Rogers doesn’t denigrate mass media, but he does attempt to hold them accountable, even if the result is less than satisfying. One wishes that the world, then and now, would value truth. Instead, leaders rule with impunity, aided by corporations and governments that have turned an eye to or have aided their wrongdoing. Still, the strong thread of virtue, determination, and integrity is prominent through this tale, offering encouragement to never back down to the bad guys, no matter the outcome.
Sher’s cast is flawless as they navigate Michael Yeargan’s simple, yet effective set that continually transforms like a Jenga puzzle. Television sets hover above the action, suggesting with discomfort that the omniscient media continues watching us while we watch them.
This season’s theater season in the New York metro area offers an abundance of politically-driven works including one about the rise of Vladmir Putin (Patriots), one that charts Ireland’s Good Friday agreement (Agreement), a revival of Ibsen’s Enemy of the People, which explores a doctor exposing the hard truth of contaminated water in a small Norwegian town, and Grenfell, a documentary style play focusing on the bureaucracy of 2017’s high rise fire in London’s North Kensington neighborhood that killed over 70 people.
Whether theater quenches your appetite for sheer escapism or provides a more intellectual exercise is a matter of personal preference. If the latter is your jam, Corruption is a thoughtful, thrilling night of theater.
Corruption runs Off-Broadway at Lincoln Center Theater's Mitzi Newhouse Theater through April 14th. For tickets and information, click here : lct.org, corruption
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