"Own the data, control the future." That is the chilling reality of our new information economy in which data is a more valuable commodity than oil. It is also a direct quote from Alexander Nix, former CEO of Cambridge Analytica, who used weapons grade psychological warfare tactics on the American and British electorates during the Trump campaign and Brexit respectively. He was funded by the Mercer family--the same billionaires who would later go on to fund Parler, the insidious channel through which the capitol rioters planned their insurrection. THE PERSUADABLES is a HEAVILY fictionalized insider look behind those closed doors where data integration, ad tech, and propaganda were fused to assault our democracy.

The play follows Olivia, a 34 year-old, liberal, Black, former Obama strategist and Stanford educated daughter of a prominent IL State Senator, who finds herself in the eye of the storm when the London based psychological operations firm where she jet-sets as an international elections consultant to far flung countries is acquired by a super-PAC spawning conservative billionaire. Together with her honey-tongued aristocratic British boss, Xavier (think posh Don Draper) with whom she has an emotionally intense, sexually charged "work-marriage", and Bryce, a queer, Candian, Muslim data scientist who has cracked the code on psychographic profiling with former Cambridge chums, Olivia is charged with creating an influence campaign to weaponize the first ammendment, as dreamed up by Kent, a vulgar, Bannonesque conspiracy blogger. Combining their talents, the firm pulls off the data heist of the century--syphoning the Facebook data of over 130 million American voters--and with Bryce's tech, Olivia's messaging, and Xavier's psy-ops know-how--weaponizes our personal data against us--the consequences, are profoundly devastating.

This play goes straight to the heart of the paradox of our social media era--the conflict between our sacred and necessary right to free speech and the epidemic of hate speech as an engine of political violence and white nationalism. THE PERSUADABLES is a political thriller about equivocation, moral hazard, betrayal, and whistleblowing, in a lightning fast 100 minute sprint. It also foreshadows the events of Jan. 6th which brings the play right up to this current political moment with urgent implications for our collective future.