Power Grab

Extreme Players—Planetarium

In an attempt to explore the range of power through a handful of stand alone scenes, Power Grab was running on low battery for this reviewer. Given the theme and reading about the previous experiences of the Extreme Players, I would have thought the incorporation of Theatre of the Oppressed would have been a more compelling investigation of the use and abuse of power…the vignettes presented felt more like a series of class exercises than a Fringe production.

There were several interesting concepts explored from the incorporation of Confession being seen as a “power grab” to an actual robot taking the “human out of Human Resources”. While the performers show much promise, particularly in the first scene, the play might have needed to sit on the dock for a bit longer.

Stephanie Adamov

Extreme Players

Power Grab—Planetarium

A workplace where seemingly every reasonable request by workers is coldly denied without consideration by a manager who seems to be experiencing personal AI glitches. A church after a hypothetical “Vatican III” where you have to maintain a certain number of “Penitent Points” in order to be able to receive full services from it, where if you can’t do this by living a good, clean life, maybe you can do it with dollars. Another workplace that claims to be healthy having policies whose implementation definitely undermine its healthiness for workers. Being told where to stand and what you can or can’t purchase in a store during the height of the pandemic, creating new tensions and conflicts between people that may have been created by government rules. And finally, imagining life on Mars where as a worker you have no rights or means of escaping a potentially cruel employer.

Come see our show! It is an anthology of stories, full of interesting situations and ideas regarding the abuse or misuse of power in our modern or near future world, that will also hopefully make you laugh!