How much is that going to be?

Let’s talk about billionaires, gargantuan amounts of money and how to use it.

At least, that is what Becca A Lewis as sleuth Forbes journalist Cherry Beaumont has on her mind in a mysterious interview with Jeff Bezos as he faces a federal case against him in the year 2030.  Accompanied by narrator and fact checker Robbie Rodriguez at the ready, How NOT to Save the World with Mr. Bezos is a deep dive into wealth, envy, greed, and blind rage as lines gradually blur between fact, falsehood and fiction. 

With unsteady direction by Taylor Stark, Boston Playwrights Theatre presents Maggie Kearnan’s How to NOT Save the World with Mr. Bezos at Boston Playwrights Theatre in Boston, Massachusetts through Sunday, November 24.  This interactive production contains graphic adult themes and runs approximately 100 minutes with no intermission.  Click here for more information and for tickets.

Boston Playwrights Theatre’s Fall Rep Festival features two new productions from living authors taking place on one stage and scenic designer Maggie Shivers certainly makes distinctive use of the space for two vastly different productions.  Multicolor light streams through adjustable windows in a modern office setting but Courtney Licata’s props are the real kicker which includes red solo cups.   Anna Drummond’s immersive sound design with Zachary Connell’s foreshadowing light design proves effective as the production intensifies.

With a biting and abrupt laugh and in a vest which seems more like a life preserver, Mark W. Soucy depicts a confident, expeditious yet preoccupied Bezos full of humble brags and word play until the stakes get high.  Lewis as Cherry is lively, amusing and occasionally unhinged in a three piece suit and black sneakers.  Soucy and Lewis spar with engaging flair as both vie for the upper hand as impressive fact checker Robbie Rodriguez works overtime taking the audience temporarily in and out of the production to clarify each character’s statements. 

How to NOT Save the World is fueled by some jaw dropping facts about wealth and offers quite the perspective of how much money billionaires really possess.  Among some of the most fascinating are it would take 570 years to spend Bezos’s wealth if Bezos spent 1 million dollars a day or the value of a 430,000 house means just 32 cents to him.  It also offers even handed facts about Bezos’s life.  At one time, he was the most powerful person in the world. 

However, the show begins to veer off course and some of the most absurd parts of the production, which infuses a classic tune, do not seem to fall as they should and comes off rather unnecessarily as the interview takes an unexpected turn. 

Amazon executives have a room where they can let out a primal scream during the holiday season and by the end of the production, I was ready to do so, but not for the reason the show encourages.  As one toils at work especially with this inflation, it is difficult for the average person to get ahead.   As satirical as the show may suggest, it relies on a society so enraged it cannot see past its most base instincts to supersede every other reasonable thought and bereft of hope for a bleak future.  Shouldn’t humanity get more credit than that?

Boston Playwrights Theatre presents Maggie Kearnan’s How to NOT Save the World with Mr. Bezos live and in person at Boston Playwrights Theatre in Boston, Massachusetts through Sunday, November 24.  This interactive production contains adult themes and runs approximately 100 minutes with no intermission.  Click here for more information and for tickets.