THE ORACLE Debuts at Theater for the New City

In The Oracle, a new comedy by Wall Street Journal humorist Joe Queenan and T.J. Elliott, a CEO decides to make two executives compete for control. In the best case scenario, it'll be great for business as two would-be oracles, or chief knowledge officers, duke it out. Failing that, it could at least be an entertaining battle to watch.

"Having two CEOs would be like having two suns in the same solar system, because the sun is the center of the universe," the CEO says. "Whereas two Oracles is more like... having two hands."

The Oracle, playing at Theater for the New City, 155 First Ave., (between 9th and10th Sts.) in Manhattan, May 18-22, provides an entertaining look at office politics, changing workplaces, diversity and destiny, mining the workplace for comedy and drama with well-drawn characters, realistic, clever dialogue and a strong plot.

Written by Queenan, a longtime humor columnist at The Wall Street Journal, and Elliott, a playwright and former Chief Learning Officer at a large corporation, The Oracle is steeped in reality and experience along with humor. Tickets are $18 and $15 for seniors and students.

Questioning whether knowledge is power in corporate America, or some other less lofty commodity is the secret ingredient to success and elevation, The Oracle features Hassan Hope, Jasmine Dorothy Haefner, Alyssa Poon, Patrick Smith, and Ed Altman.

The two act play boasts set design by Kathleen Ritter, lighting design by Mikelle Kelly, projection and sound design by Luke Lutz, and Producing Services by Emma Denson and Ed Altman.

Although The Oracle tells a fictional story of a CEO pitting employees against each other in a kind of survival of the most fit for corporate America, it's a funny journey into the office, very different from the TV show of that name.

This production at TNC is a powerful, new play about office politics writ large, not about the American dream, as Death of a Salesman is, but the largely unmined humor of American corporate reality.

"How to succeed in business without really knowing," Elliott jokes about an apt subtitle. "The ability to sell themselves and sell their ideas makes them successful."

This is a world where one character spouts the motto "My job is to make you a success," although the reality seems very different. The motto "Do it yesterday" inadvertently dooms efforts to failure, in a world where we hear about a seminar on the (somewhat uncertain) future of uncertainty.

"It's about corporate dynamics," Elliott says of his latest collaboration with Queenan. "Office politics are a subset of corporate dynamics."

The play is a blend of the two writers' sensibilities, a mix of drama and humor surrounding the struggle to win around, or beyond, the water cooler. Queenan, who grew up in Philadelphia and lives in Tarrytown, wrote humor for Barron's, Forbes and The New York Times before launching his "Moving Targets" column for the Wall Street Journal.

Elliott was born in the Bronx, lived in New Jersey, worked in corporate America for many years, wrote business books, including one he co-wrote about making decisions, and lives in Princeton.

As to how the two writers collaborate, Queenan quips, "The long story is if stuff is thoughtful and penetrating and intellectual, T.J. wrote it. If it's a cheap laugh, I wrote it."

The Oracle finds fertile ground in a part of American life too often overlooked by theater, which seems to have a blind spot for the business world. Americans over a lifetime spend 90,000 hours at work, according to a book titled Happiness at Work. And yet theater seems to turn a virtual blind eye to the humor, heartbreak and drama, of this central part of the American reality.

"There aren't many plays about business," Elliott says. "Recently, there was a popular play about business, The Lehman Trilogy. It's interesting that it sold out. I found it fascinating. We'd already written this play, but that production encouraged us."

Ed Altman, who plays the CEO in The Oracle, worked in financial services for many years and has since appeared in theater and in television. He sees the workplace as a topic avoided by and natural for theater

"People work all day," Altman says. "Then they want to forget about the office, but there's a lot going on there, a lot of drama and comedy. And it can be a good starting point for a play."

The Oracle looks at a world where every day top executives are beckoned to embrace a new idea - literally. The unnamed business (we don't know what it does, but it has a board) begins every day with "three reveals" or things to focus on, creating a 24-hour cycle of revelation that leaves a lot of time for enthusiastic eurekas, but not for execution.

"As one character points out, oracles always say things that can be true no matter what happens," Elliott says. "'If you fight today, a great army will be destroyed.' That's right. One or the other."

The play involves dueling oracles with the business as a battlefield, as a gaggle of gurus go after each other with the gusto usually reserved for combatants in the World Wrestling Federation. They hurl business blather at each other like punches in a boxing match.

"The play was always a black comedy, but it was more serious. I decided we should have these guys engaging in a duel that nobody else can understand," Queenan says. "They're constantly trying to one up each other."

The Oracle also looks at serious issues such as diversity and discrimination, along with biases that sometimes lead to uniformity rather than the benefits of different ethnicities and backgrounds.

"I was in the position of recommending folks for high- level jobs," Elliott says of his work life (an oxymoron a little bit like jumbo shrimp). "They would choose the person who was like them. They look like them, think like them, talk like them. They came from the same college."

The Oracle looks at a changing workplace where an older white guard and new guard including an Asian-American woman and African-American man vie for power. It looks at how those in the C-suite try to figure out the future - and deal with the past.

"It's clear that she is the better oracle," Elliott says of a young Asian-American woman who faces resistance when she tries to get executives to invest more in the company and less in their own compensation. "She doesn't understand corporate politics. it's not the knowledge that matters but the ability to sell, motivate and manipulate."

We spend time in a world filed with relationships, revelations and, now and then, revenge, as people get hired, fired and mixed up in sometimes Machiavellian machinations. The Oracle opens the door to a heartfelt, humorous view of the changing office, set in breakrooms, board rooms and at an unspecified business.

In a play full of memorable moments, there's one that lets us look into the depths, or shallows, of a deciding process that turns out to be simpler than one might expect. "There's a twist, but no spoilers. Come see the play." Elliott says of a guru's secret sauce.

The Oracle, Theater for the New City, 155 First Ave., NY, NY. May 18-22 , May 18, 19, 20 and 21 at 8 p.m. and a matinee Sunday May 22 at 4 p.m. For more information, go to www.knowledge workings.com. Tickets Tix are available for the limited five performance run at this link .

* Patrick Smith appears courtesy of Actors Equity Association

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