I recently attended the off-Broadway musical production, In CORPO, which explores the modern-day stranglehold of Corporate America over its employees,. Where thoughts are not private and all are gaslighted into thinking they cannot survive outside of CORPO.   Though the production itself was not as clean as it could have been, the overall message got my attention. 

Synopsis: In a dystopian future, “In CORPO” delves into a world where this single, powerful, TechnoCorp conglomerate, dominates society with an iron fist. Employees find themselves trapped in a web of control and manipulation, their thoughts stripped of privacy and molded to serve the corporation’s interests.

The story revolves around our protagonist, an outside consultant, K, who receives a recording from her estranged father within CORPO.  In her quest to reconnect with her father, she discovers the dark secrets of a gradual erosion of individuality and personal freedom within CORPO. The employees’ thoughts are monitored and influenced through advanced neurotechnology, leaving them feeling like mere pawns in CORPO’s grand design.

As K uncovers the corporation’s sinister agenda, she becomes determined to liberate herself and her colleagues from their mental bondage. She connects with individuals, influencing them, and together they embark on a perilous journey to expose the truth to the world and themselves.

At times I found myself drifting off, revisiting themes of some of great Science Fiction reads on this subject: 1984, Fahrenheit 451, The Matrix, Hunger Games, and a plethora of other great works.  But as I was sitting in the front row watching this performance, it only reinsured my belief that the US is morphing into a corporation.  Think about it:  Dropping a US military base or a Wal-Mart, Costco, McDonalds, KFC, Nike, Disney, etc., into a foreign county is just like in Neil Stephenson’s, “SNOW CRASH” and his depiction of Franchulates (blur between franchise an embassy). There is a reason the world looks at us with such skepticism– they don’t want our culture to become theirs and ours is looking a little to 1984 and Big Brother, these days.

Through K’s journey, the audience is invited to question the boundaries between personal autonomy and the influence of powerful entities. Can the human spirit prevail against the relentless assault on freedom, or will the corporation’s grip prove too strong?  This was a production of hope, unity, and the indomitable nature of the human will in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.

Is this our future?  Where the brainwashed outnumber the K’s in the world?