From left: Office helpers Lucian (Seth Numrich) and Karie (Eleanor Handley) assist Tom Watson (Toby Stephens) in digging up information on the phone-hacking scandal that engulfed Great Britain in 2010–11 in J. T. Rogers’s Corruption.
American playwright J. T. Rogers, the author of Oslo, tackles political issues again in Corruption. At first glance, the play’s subject matter looks parochial: the phone-hacking scandal in London in 2010 and 2011. That scandal, in which newspapers belonging to Australian media tycoon Rupert Murdoch were found to have hacked private phones as well as those of public officials, engulfed newspapers, prime ministers, investigative reporters, and members of Parliament. In Bartlett Sher’s thrilling production, the immersion into British politics comes with numerous parallels to American politics.
Tom calms his wife, Siobhan (Robyn Kerr), who wants him to stay out of the spotlight. Photographs by T. Charles Erickson.
The characters in the play are plentiful. Chief among them is Tom Watson (Toby Stephens), a hatchet man for Prime Minister Gordon Brown. But Brown is facing a scandal from Rebekah Brooks (Saffron Burrows), the stony head of Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers, which include The Sun and News of the World. She’s about to expose Watson as the ruthless thug he is. Yet Rogers gives a comic spin to the skulduggery:
Rebekah: Tom Watson. You need to fire him.
Gordon Brown: Rebekah, I know you have strong feelings about—
Rebekah: “Feelings”? Oh, dear. Have we become Americans now?
In spite of his loyalty, Watson is fired. He is relegated to an anodyne committee, “Culture, Media and Sports.” Meanwhile, at The Guardian newspaper, wary investigator Nick Davies (T. Ryder Smith, who also plays a tight-lipped, corrupt Scotland Yard commissioner) is simultaneously uncovering Brooks’s own Achilles heel—she has purportedly directed a hacking of emails—some 11,000 in total, and not just those of political bigwigs, but also those of ordinary people, who slowly come forward to describe the terror:
Car repair shop owner: They wrote I used my auto shop to put convicted killer drivers back on the road with fake licenses. It was in print, so everyone believed it. Lost my shop, my house.
Anthony Cochrane plays Prime Minister Gordon Brown, for whom Tom serves as hatchet man before Brown fires him.
Simultaneously, the Murdochs are pushing to complete a takeover of BSkyB television, which would give them major control of British news. And Watson, who has promised his wife, Siobhan (Robyn Kerr), to keep his head down, finds himself in the spotlight again as his committee investigates the scandal.
The superb company of actors takes on important characters as well as colorful minor ones: a white-haired Michael Siberry brings a stoic, patrician air to John Whittingdale, a committee chairman, as well as to Max Mosley, a louche tycoon who says, “My orgies have always had a German flair.” Seth Numrich is the touchy James Murdoch, Rupert’s son, who wants Rebekah to submit to his directives, clearly bristling at her power because he knows that she’s Murdoch’s favorite; he also plays Andy Coulson, a top editor sacrificed by the Murdochs to stem the scandal. John Behlmann is splendid as Charlie Brooks, the polar opposite of his wife: jocular, cajoling, romantic, but also submissive when she cracks her whip; he also plays a karaoke chum of Tom’s.
The twists and turns, though, involve Tom’s negotiations and investigations. As Tom, Stephens is both ruthless and abashed as he is forced to face his past behavior as Brown’s enforcer. At one point, he seeks the help of an MP he mistreated, Chris Bryant (K. Todd Freeman):
Tom: Look, I know we’ve had our differences, Chris, but this goes beyond that.
Chris: “Differences.” Is that what you’d call them? Do you remember your voicemails to me, Tom? They’re still on my phone if you’d like to hear them. “Listen to me, you fucking poof. You’ll vote as I say, or I’ll break you in two. Just you wait and see.”
Tom: It’s politics, Chris. Things are said.
Rebekah Brooks (Saffron Burrows) testifies to a committee as her projection looms overhead.
The multifaceted story barrels forward swiftly but clearly. Michael Yeargan uses mobile tables of different heights to form public and private spaces. Donald Holder’s lighting, particularly varied colored lines of light across the floor—sometimes solid, sometimes broken—give a snap to the scenes. Projections (by 59 Productions) on walls and on a large, suspended circle of video screens show various MPs and interviewees to help the audience keep up with the frenetic pace of this unfolding thriller. Will Brooks be held to account? (Rogers wisely gives her a sympathetic subplot involving infertility and the hiring of a surrogate to carry a child to term, and Burrows handles it well, but she’s unquestionably the worst of all the flawed characters.)
The surprise is that Rogers saw how well this story would travel for an American audience—the power of the Murdochs over media here and the dishonesty of the “reporting” on Fox News make Corruption more than a granular view of a decade-old British political scandal. It brings into relief the parallel dangers posed to American society.
J. T. Rogers’s Corruption plays through April 14 at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center. Evening performances are at 7 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday and at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Friday and Saturday; matinees are at 2 p.m. Wednesday and Saturday and at 3 p.m. Sunday. For tickets and more information, visit lct.org.
Play: J. T. Rogers
Direction: Barlett Sher
Sets: Michael Yeargan
Costumes: Jennifer Moeller
Lighting: Donald Holder
Sound: Justin Ellington
Projections: 59 Projections
