Theater review: The Low Road explores the roots of US capitalism

The Low Road

Written by Bruce Norris

Directed by Michael Greif

Starring Daniel Davis and Chris Perfetti

The Public Theater, Manhattan

March 15, 2018

Playwright Bruce Norris (b. 1960) started as an actor in the 1980s but has been writing plays for the Steppenwolf Theater, Chicago in recent years. His Clybourne Park (2010), a follow-up to A Raisin in the Sun, won a Pulitzer Prize as well as Tony and Olivier awards for Best New Play in 2011. His plays often address white liberal hypocrisy, esp. regarding race, and US issues of class and wealth disparity. The Low Road (2013) does so as well, but through an inventive scheme not set in the modern era like Norris’ other plays. This play follows an entrepreneurial young man of the 1700s, Jim Trumpett (a fresh, appealing, and perfectly innocent-sociopathic Chris Perfetti), seeking to rise from poverty to make a fortune in pre-revolution America. 

Jim doggedly seeks to succeed by following “modern” economic principles (lending, borderline investment schemes, cheating), following the principles of the 18^th century Scottish economist Adam Smith (The Wealth of Nations). The play is mostly farcical-comic, rather like Tom Jones or The Rake’s Progress, and asks us to reflect on modern issues of race, class, and income by analogy with the issues of 1770. Norris’ point is that these are much the same, and that progress has been barely incremental, since the exploitatively capitalistic principles of our society have not changed. The play is cleverly narrated by Adam Smith himself (an amusingly stuffy Daniel Davis). 

In Norris’ view, Smith’s economic doctrines remain the cornerstone of our modern inequities. According to Smith, an individual seeks only to better himself, and “neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it…. [He] intends only his own gain, and he is …led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention…he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it.” Thus, a good government gets out of the way of the individual, since his efforts to better himself benefit society as a whole. This ancestor of trickle-down economics, the Laffer Curve, etc. remains the default US philosophy. Norris, while acknowledging the innovation and progress resulting from this system, is more interested in the exploitation and suffering that result from it. The Low Road stays amazingly witty and light-hearted given this philosophic bent, generally avoiding preachiness that often weigh down such political plays. His choice of an 18th century ribald progress-of-a-rake format was excellent to display the economic points while keeping the play buoyant and often funny.

The play, about 2 hours long, is well-cast, well-paced and generally stays on track. There is one brief, funny time warp to a modern economic conference with pretentious economic thought-leaders spewing CEO-speak. I think this episode was unnecessary, as the plot’s relevance to modern times was obvious. The inclusion of the theme of slavery as a downside of profit-making was good; an educated black sometimes-slave (similar to the lead of the later movie Twelve Years a Slave) supplies a character to preach the unfairness of the system. The play is plot-driven and moves briskly without much character development. We understand the characters more from what they do than what they say. This prevents the play from developing much true insight into why profiteering humans do what they do. Norris seems to feel that many of us are just wired that way. The play is therefore mostly pessimistic in its outlook, largely agreeing with Adam Smith and not offering many solutions except for using laws to moderate the tendencies of the individual, or at least not to encourage our worst rapacious selves. Played on a mostly bare set with minimal props, The Low Road benefits from quick scene changes, rapid dialogue (rather like Tom Stoppard), and constant action. There is occasional fun melodrama (e.g. roadside robbers strip the lead character naked, a cliff-hanger firing squad execution), a nice solo violin for background music, and a farcical scene showing American religious zealots who are trying unsuccessfully to promote a more socialist and egalitarian society (with limits, of course—the blind leader hates Native Americans as “beasts”). In the end, the sociopathic Jim ruins a lot of lives to make a few bucks, but his main legacy is that his descendants will do the same thing.