What do you think of when you think of Rupert Murdoch? A ruthless businessman who runs a billion-dollar world-wide publishing empire? But did you know he acquired a rundown newspaper in 1969 and turned it into the best-selling tabloid in Britain inside of a year?
Ink, at the Round House, is the story of that process, told with fast-paced plotting, dynamite acting and non-stop projections, which leave us breathless and marveling at the innovations Murdoch (Michael Glenn on the night I saw it) inspires in the staff of the Sun. At the same time, we follow the trajectory of his chief henchman, Larry Lamb (Cody Nickell), as he sheds his inhibitions to wage war against the handed-down traditions of Fleet Street and goes for the lowest moral denominator to sell papers: giveaways, titillation, sensationalism, giant font headlines and knickers in a tin.
“Give the people what they really want!” is the motto embodied in the three elements that must appear on the front page every day: WIN, FREE, and LOVE. And ultimately, full female nudity on Page Three. What a tizzy that threw the public into! How many papers it sold!
We admire the drive and ingenuity while remembering what that eventually led to: a ruthless influence on the opinions of not just Britain, but the entire world. This play mightily tries to subvert the better angels of our nature as we admire the staff of the Sun’s David-and-Goliath battle against the entrenched papers on the Street.
And, in the course of the play, we are reminded of the ultimate cost of this kind of ruthlessness. Muriel, a staffer’s wife, is mistaken for Murdoch’s wife, kidnapped and held for ransom, but it goes horribly wrong, and her body is never found. “We think they fed her to the pigs.” Larry Lamb, already driven to the edge of civility in his drive to sell papers, falls over it. This is ultimately the story of his descent into moral turpitude. Murdoch, as we all know, sailed on to assail the information industry of America and the world. Today, at age 92, one wonders what he thinks of the play.
Even while confronting the dilemma of thoroughly enjoying a production which asks us to root for the accomplishment of an ultimately unsavory victory, I wholeheartedly recommend seeing Ink. It will delight and provoke you. And the café is featuring a few British-leaning dishes to complement the play. Not, unfortunately, the steak and lobster featured in one of the several dining scenes, but a simulacrum: oven-roasted sweet potatoes, beef stew, and bangers and mash. There is a hard cider selection for the hops-averse, and the cocktails are named “Establishment,” “Tabloid,” and “Page Three Girl.” Titillation indeed!
Ink is running through September 24th at the Round House Theatre, co-produced by Olney Theatre Center, written by James Graham, directed by Jason Loewith.
