There is a scene midway through Plutus where we meet a man, Mr. Lloyd
Blankety Blank who has lost everything because of Plutus' restored
sight. The implication is that his wealth was derived at the expense of
others. And that he deserves to lose it.
In the original play, his character is "The Informer," clearly a shady
character in the Ancient Greek world. In our contemporary version we see
him as a Madoff type, some one who abused power to get wealth. Cairo
and the Just Man, newly wealthy, berate the fallen Mr Blankety Blank for
his former abuses and take away his wealthy clothes, all that remains
of his previous status.
The tricky thing about the scene in a modern context is that it could be
construed as incredibly black and white. It is easy to demonize "the
wealthy" or "1%" and give a moral green light to all impoverished or
less fortunate.
Our challenge as a company is to adapt the scene in a way that really
makes it specific. What is it about this particular man that caused him
to lose everything? In his mind he worked hard to get where he is and
works hard to stay there. He doesn't want to be as he says "another
slave on the C train." If he has extra money to spend on a private jet
than who are we to judge him? We have to get to the heart of what makes
his actions unjust.
By the same turn, what happens to Cario in this context? A former slave,
he is suddenly in the position of standing over the former elite and
taking materials from them? Does this power infect him in some way so that he becomes a part of what he originally fought against?
It is our challenge to make this scene -- and the play as a whole -- work on all sides of the coin.
