a play by Eric Samuelsen
What makes our acts moral? Is any practice “just business”? Can Book of Mormon lessons speak to us in our high-tech world? In contexts as diverse as nuclear testing, corporate mergers, and Mormon family life, Gadianton powerfully reminds us that every decision is personal. And that it does not just connect to any one religion — or any religion at all — for its practitioners. The use of Gadianton is an archetype here. The Robbers of Gadianton can be everywhere, both inside and outside of the Church.
WINNER: Association for Mormon Letters award for Drama in 1997.
PLAY DETAILS:
- 7M 4F
- MCKAY TODD — An LDS Bishop, early forties. Originally played by Jason Tatom.
KAREN TODD — His wife. Originally played by Katie Holsinger.
FRED WHITMORE — An exec with ONTI, late thirties. Originally played by Ben Hoppe.
CYNTHIA WHITMORE — His wife. Originally played by Megan Sanborn.
MAHONRI WARD — Owner and CEO of ONTI, late fifties. Originally played by Tim Slover.
BRENDA BURDETT — Todd’s assistant, late twenties. Originally played by Colleen Baum.
SAM SUMPTER — Helen’s assistant, early thirties. Originally played by Josh Brady.
HELEN BRYSON — ONTI’s head of public relations, early thirties. Originally played by Amy Barrus.
CHAD FIRMAGE — FRED’s administrative assistant, early twenties. Originally played by Ryan Rauzon.
JOHN W. COGBURN — Former partner of HARRY JUNE’s, late forties. Originally played by Danny Stiles.
CON BRYSON — Helen’s husband. Employed at Empasse. Originally played by Jeremy Hoop.
MINOR CHARACTERS:
HARRY JUNE — Owner of Empasse, ONTI’s main competitor.
WILSON HACKETT–Southern Utah sheep farmer, ca. 1948. Originally played by Rob Gardner.
ERMA MACKELPRANGER–St. George housewife, ca. 1953 Originally played by Rachel Davenport.
GADIANTON, KISHKUMEN, SEEZORAM, SEANTUM and BETHESDA–Book of Mormon characters.
COOPER and SCOTT — two execs, silent partners of MAHONRI WARD.
THE STAKE PRESIDENT — President of FRED WHITMORE’s stake.
BIBI HALSTRUP — KAREN TODD’s sworn enemy.
Various other ONTI employees, security guards and reporters.
- MCKAY TODD — An LDS Bishop, early forties. Originally played by Jason Tatom.
- About 2 hours
- ORDER #2024
Available for ALL producing groups.
REVIEW:
INSIGHTFUL `GADIANTON’ GNAWS AWAY AT CORPORATE LADDER
by Deseret News Feb 4, 1997, 2:00am EDT
Genelle Pugmire, Staff Writer
GADIANTON, by Eric Samuelson; produced by the Brigham Young University Department of Theatre & Film, directed by Bob Nelson. Corporate moguls take heed, Eric Samuelson’s “Gadianton” may just be your undoing. Forget the meager set, the unpadded chairs, and that the theater is two stories underground; this production should be seen by anyone ever affected by – or who knows someone affected by – corporate downsizing. That’s pretty much the entire Wasatch Front.
Samuelson has put together a masterful collage of thought-provoking storylines that leaves one questioning their own ethics. From the moment Fred Whitmore, an efficiency consultant, played by Benjamin Hoppe, enters the stage, the audience is very aware this play is going to be different. A word of warning, although representations are not meant to reflect any one real person, I would have been very uncomfortable if any former or current officials from Word Perfect, Novell and other high-tech companies were in the audience. Direct reference to Microsoft magnate Bill Gates is common throughout the play.
Whitemore’s ultimate mission is to streamline ONTI Enterprises, located in St. George, raise the value of the stock and prepare the company for a future merger or sale. Whitmore’s first challenge is to change CEO Mohonri Ward’s (played by Tim Slover) “Joseph Smith” attitude of teaching correct principles and letting the company and employees govern themselves. Whitmore snips, “That has a nice Tom Peters ring to it.” Religion comes into play when ONTI’s mail-room supervisor, LDS Bishop McKay Todd, played by Jason Tatom, hires on several members of his congregation and watches as they climb the corporate ladder, just to slide down. Whitmore also admits he “took the lessons, then took the bath” so he would be one of the community. Why, in San Diego he took up golfing! Whitmore “gets his” when his LDS stake president calls him to be the stake drama director. Whitmore, and his equally obnoxious wife, played by Megan Sanborn, choose as the next stake drama, a ditty called, what else, “Gadianton.”
Samuelson makes the famous Book of Mormon robber look like he is really no different than most upwardly mobile business people today. Isn’t the bottom line to “get gain”? Whitmore is the only one to see Gadianton, a white shirt, tie and armor-clad ghost, who concurs and congratulates Whitmore’s method. Those methods the author calls “Gadiantonisms.” When it’s obvious that hundreds of layoffs will occur, Whitmore encourages leadership to not refer to it as downsizing. “Those who use the term downsizing don’t know a business cycle from a Schwinn. We are right-sizing.” For Helen Bryson, ONTI’s head of media relations, the goal is to smile while being as vague as possible. This goes against all her principles, but it’s her job. For what its worth, the Bryson character is “right on” in representing the world of media relations.
While the “involuntary payroll reduction” is implemented, Bishop Todd is trying to juggle the many personal and financial problems of his own family and of his ward members. His final decisions come as no surprise, but I question if it truly reflects reality. The plight of the St. George “downwinders” also weaves itself throughout the play and is a personal issue to Todd, who has lost three family members to cancer and hears word his brother has it. Vignettes of downwinders Wilson Hackett and Erma Mack-el-pranger give the audience insight to the day-to-day struggles with “St. George’s disease.”
All of this sounds really heavy, but Samuelson has cleverly woven humor into the piece. For instance the bishop’s wife, Karen, is trying to be just like the “perfect” sister in the ward and complains that “Bibi” is the only one who doesn’t use ice when making Jell-O. The production was cast perfectly. Everyone played their character well.
It is going to be a long time before this critic shakes off the effects of “Gadianton.” Hopefully, I never will.”
PLAY AT BYU DRAMATIZES THE IMPACT OF DOWNSIZING — Published: Sunday, Jan. 26 1997
“Written by BYU faculty member Eric Samuelsen and directed by Robert A. Nelson, the script was inspired when Samuelsen saw how a layoff negatively affected a family he was home-teaching for his LDS Church ward. Conversations with his brother, Rob, about his experiences as an NCR executive when AT&T took over the company and news reports on a major layoff at a software company in California also contributed.As a way of showing how people may react when a business undergoes major employment changes, Samuelsen uses three main characters – outside consultant Fred Whitmore, publicist Helen Bryson and LDS bishop McKay Todd, who works in the company’s mailroom. As the play’s antagonist, Whitmore is the closest thing to a bad guy. Whitmore is also the only person in the play who sees Gadianton, dressed in full Arnold Friberg regalia over a white shirt and tie, suggestive of the robbers described in the Book of Mormon.) This is a hard-hitting, strong play that should make everyone think, assess or evaluate how we react to the important issues in our lives. In the past, the worst Mormon plays trivialized values we cherish and issues important to us… a dramatic text I care rather deeply about. `Gadianton’ certainly applies. Despite being heavily thematic and intellectually provocative, this is a genuinely entertaining piece.”
PERUSAL MATERIALS
- The Perusal Pages File (in PDF format) can be read by clicking below. It contains the first half of the script.
- Or you can read the entire play in the new Anthology: Saints On Stage (Available from Zarahemla Books)
PRODUCTION MATERIALS AVAILABLE:
- Script in PDF format — Order #2024a : $25.00 (from which you will be authorized to copy for your production)
- First Performance Amateur/Educational Royalty — Order #2024d : $75
- Second Performance Amateur/Educational Royalty — Order #2024e : $65
- Professional Royalties will be quoted upon application
- ZT Performance Licence Application (in PDF format) to download our Performance License Application. No production rights can be granted until this application is filled out and sent to us. (We are working on an ONLINE PDF filler form)
PRODUCTIONS:
- Anthologized in “Saints On Stage” Edited by Mahonri Stewart, Zarahemla Press, 2013
- Produced by University of Louisiana at Monroe, 1997
- WINNER: Association of Mormon Letters Drama Award, 1997
- Published in Sunstone Magazine, 1997
- Premiered at Brigham Young University — 1996
Photo and program cover from the 1996 BYU production
From the catalog of
