Highline Times

TUESDAY JULY 18, 2006

Play examines wacky world of business 

By Tim Takechi

Anyone who watches a Breeders Theater production at the E.B. Foote Winery knows to expect silly and irreverent comedy. But anyone who sees their new show might be in for a surprise.

Capital offers both a funny and serious portrait of corporate greed and the ordinary people affected by it.

Capital tells the story of the rise and fall of the fictitious mining conglomerate Continental Mining Industry, a company not unlike Enron, and the befuddled bureaucratic system of big business.

Breeders Theater newcomer Terrence Boyd plays Bob Sterling, a sympathetic loser who is forced to work for greedy corporate poster boy and former infomercial actor Dan (a wonderfully sleazy Jim Cooper).

Bob, eager to climb up the corporate ladder, will do almost anything his boss instructs him to do.

Things become suspect when Dan hires the neurotic Ned (Eric Hartley) and his future mistress Alison (Kelly Johnson), both of whom conveniently know very little about the mining business, to high echelons of CMI.

Bob, Ned and Alison foolishly trust Dan when he promises to miraculously transform CMI into a Fortune 500 company.

Enter Jason (Steve Scheide), a computer geek who spends all day with a "headtop" computer (as opposed to a laptop computer) placed on his noggin. Jason has created a nonsense computer program called "Pathfinder," which supposedly finds profitable patterns in the stock market.

Dan realizes Pathfinder can be the perfect alibi to rip off employees' retirement pensions, cheat stockholders, and commit other Lay/Skillingesque misdemeanors.

BT regular Carlos Calvo delivers a standout performance as the Fairy, who acts as Bob's conscience in various dream sequences.

Calvo's costumes must be seen to be believed.

Boyd is perfectly cast as an eager nobody who desperately wants to make a name for himself.

Johnson has a hilarious monologue about her first encounter with her future boss.

And Hartley's energetic and nuanced performance keeps the flow of the show going.

Kudos to musician Nancy Warren for her appropriate rendition of a popular Pink Floyd song during the blackouts.

While Capital has its share of farcical comedy, writer T.M. Sell and director Scott Green deliver a timely message about the dangers of unchecked capitalism and its effects on the everyday blue collar working man. Or woman.

Capital runs from July 19, 21, 22, 26, 28, and 29 at 7 p.m. and July 30 at 2 pm. Tickets cost $20. The E.B. Foote Winery is located 127-B S.W. 153rd St., Burien, phone 206-242-3852.

Tickets are available at both the winery and at Corky Cellars, located at 22511 Marine View Dr., Des Moines, 206-824-9462.