To see Other People’s Money is to understand why the French call our economic system “savage capitalism.” The ruthlessness and greed of Wall Street have also been grist for the mill of such contemporary American writers as Oliver Stone and David Mamet. Now we can add the name of playwright Jerry Sterner to that list. Sterner, who wrote Other People’s Money when he was working the night-shift for the New York Transit Authority, satirizes insider trading in his play, which won an Outer Critics Circle Award when it was first done off-Broadway in 1989 (and then became a Hollywood film starring Gregory Peck and Danny DeVito). The comedy pits Jorgenson (Kent Minault), head of New England Wire & Cable, a venerable family business, against Larry “the Liquidator” Garfinkle (Rob Adler), who comes up from New York intending to take the company over in predatory fashion, sell off its assets, and walk away with a bundle of dough. That he will leave behind a shuttered factory and 1200 out-of-work employees doesn’t bother him in the slightest. Jorgenson, an old-fashioned businessman with a conscience, tries his best to fight Larry off. He is aided by his comptroller, Coles (Barry Heins), and his longtime assistant, Bea (Amanda Carlin). The latter also has a daughter, Kate (Alexandra Wright), who is a corporate lawyer with the toughness and smarts needed to slug it out with Larry. Much of Other People’s Money deals with the battle between Larry and Kate, one which sheds light on the mysteries and machinations of insider trading–there is much talk of poison pills, green mail, and court injunctions. But in the end,l the play is really about the impact money —big money — has on human beings: whether they will sell their souls for it. It’s sad but true to say that most of the people in the play do not come off well in that regard. Sterner’s polemical, hard-hitting, and all-too-relevant play is snappily directed and acted by the Interact company. Production values, especially Gary Lee Reid’s stark, austere set, are first-rate as well.
