There’s definitely a return on Loeb’s chilling ‘Investment’
Willa (Lauren English, left) delivers her findings to May (Sharon Shao, center) and Paul (Anthony Fusco) in San Francisco Playhouse's R.O.I. (Return on Investment), a world-premiere production running through Sept. 5 at the Creativity Theater. Photo courtesy of San Francisco Playhouse
The unofficial theme song of R.O.I. (Return on Investment), the sharp new world-premiere from former Bay Area playwright Aaron Loeb is “All of Me.” The play delves into the big-money health tech world, where the voracious data monsters want every detail about your life and your activity. So, in other words, “why not take all of me?" Because they will anyway.
Loeb, who has been absent from local stages for far too long, is back at the San Francisco Playhouse, where his Abraham Lincoln’s Big, Gay Dance Party and Ideation made such an impression in 2008 and 2013 respectively. Like the corporate-set, terrifying Ideation (which is said to be on its way to the big screen), the new play is in the world of big business – really big business. We’re talking the realm of Bezos and Zuckerberg and Musk (oh, my), where billions and trillions are just so many zeroes scattered along the path to world domination and, I’m sure they all assume, immortality.
Our entry point into this world is May Lee (a luminous Sharon Shao), an incredibly bright venture capitalist and protege of Paul Montrose (Anthony Fusco, an actor so grounded you believe every word he says), the man behind the Montrose Fund. He’s a gazillionaire from the early Google days of the last century, and now his fund is doing the good work, mostly in health tech, to, as he blithely puts it, “save the world.” He supposes that even with all his massive success, that he’s still one of the good guys, and May has faith that he means it.
Willa (English) updates May (Shao) as they both revel in their success. Photo courtesy of San Francisco Playhouse
Then along comes Willa McGovern (Lauren English, another SF Playhouse regular making a welcome return to the stage), a brilliant scientist who is so uncool that she can coolly ask for $30 billion to begin a project that she is confident can change the world. And the thing is, as May and Paul soon learn, is that she most likely can.
So, with initial seed money in place, the research and development begins apace and investors start rolling in. Series A, Series B – all that Silicon Valley blah blah is happening. Years go by. Everyone gets extremely rich, and the fate of humanity is truly challenged and potentially altered by Willa’s work. Things go from sincere and exciting to creepy and horrifying very quickly.
What is of dramatic interest here is not the business but the humanity (or lack thereof). On one level, there’s the change wrought by massive success and unimaginable financial gain. On another, there’s every ethical issue you can think of when scientists start messing with human genes for profit.
Willa (English, left) and Paul (Fusco, center) surprise May (Shao). Photo courtesy of San Francisco Playhouse
Though the screen-dominated set by Bill English is slick and efficient, it’s not cold, and neither is Loeb’s play. Director Jonathan Moscone keeps the pace ultra-brisk for 90-plus minutes because everyone on stage, it seems, is in a hurry to either save the world, get super rich or become a god (or, all of the above).
With Shao’s vibrant May at the center, we never lose contact with a reasonably grounded person who gets caught up in the hurricane forces of success and swift change but somehow manages to retain a semblance of her integrity. That’s not to say she’s a saint, but more than other characters, she feels the weight of what is being done, while others spiral into paranoia, bigotry and other terrifying behaviors often associated with tech that attracts all the money and promises to do the most good.
Things reach such a fever pitch that one character expresses a dubious hope that the “good billionaires will save us from the bad billionaires,” and I can’t think of a scarier line I’ve heard in a play this year.
It’s not Loeb’s job to offer hope while holding up a mirror to a frenzied world in thrall to AI and the like, and he doesn’t. But neither does he abandon the idea of a person’s capacity for resisting in the face of impossible odds. It’s small and it’s probably futile, but it’s something.
“You took the part that once was my heart, so why not take all of me.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Aaron Loeb’s R.O.I. (Return on Investment) continues its world-premiere engagement through Sept. 5 with a San Francisco Playhouse Production at the Creatvity Theatre, 221 4th St., San Francisco. Running time is 95 minutes (no intermission). Tickets are $41-$57. Call 415-677-9596 or visit sfplayhouse.org.
