They are professionals with a job to do, a dirty business, to be sure, but they tell themselves they may be contributing to the salvation of humanity. If there are moral issues, they can be charted on a graph. If there are legal issues, the money to make them disappear can be figured into the budget. But what if �"? A kernel of personal doubt introduced into such an equation becomes an exponential accelerant for paranoia as members of a management team begin to question who is, in their business jargon, the ultimate "vision holder."
This is the intriguing premise of Aaron Loeb's Ideation, a comically dark boardroom thriller that is having its official world premiere at San Francisco Playhouse after being presented by the theater last year in its Sandbox series. The central challenge presented to this management team: How to preemptively contain a theoretical viral epidemic by identifying, collecting, containing, and disposing of millions who may have contracted the virus.
Ideation starts off with a Mamet-like bonhomie among three corporate guys (Jason Kapoor, Mark Anderson Phillips, and Michael Ray Wisely) and the efficiency-minded woman (Carrie Paff) whom they tolerate as their leader. One of their mission's basic tenets, spelled out on a whiteboard as the team assembles, is, "No 'N' word." It's not the obvious case of PC sensitivities being invoked, but it's a while before we learn what other unspeakable "N" word is being referenced. That whiteboard almost becomes a character, as increasingly obsessive scenarios are plotted out and just as quickly wiped away.
A cocky office boy (Ben Euphrat) seems to be ill-suited for this environment, and he is soon drummed out of the group, only to return to further stoke the what-if chasm into which they all have fallen. Loeb has a keen ear for the snap-crackle-pop dialogue of self-satisfied entitlement and its subsequent fearful inverse, and the cast under Josh Costello's direction is in close harmony. Bill English's glossy set adds to the stylish, slightly inhuman world in which these characters operate.
Finding a way to turn theoretically infected hordes into "toxic-waste sludge" is just part of their assignment. "No such virus exists," a team member points out. But in the time since Ideation was first staged, a virus has arisen that does seem capable of engulfing a continent. Perhaps some agencies are prudently working on secret contingency plans right now should the virus threaten our shores. What if?
Ideation will run at San Francisco Playhouse through Nov. 8. Tickets are $20-$120. Call 677-9596 or go to sfplayhouse.org.