The Other People

Two men and a woman are waiting in a large modern conference room for a fourth person who is late. They are in a bit of a panic because he has never been late before. This fourth person, as the play develops, seems to be someone of immense power upon whom they are dependent for their own authority. As each of these characters in his own way breaks down certain unpleasant truths emerge further fueling their disintegration.
It is the near future, and Earth has been transfigured by a group of Others-wealthy, beautiful, extremely long-lived people whose origins are unknown-though whether the planet is now a Utopia or dystopia is a matter of perspective. Crime is nearly nonexistent, pollution is a thing of the past, and fish populations have rebounded in the oceans. The rise of the Others, however, involved mass executions and imprisonments, with entire populations of the Earth disappearing overnight. The Others still hold humanity in a state of bondage, rigging elections to keep collaborators in office. These people in the boardroom are three such collaborators: humans who have benefited from the rise of the Others even as they don't quite understand where the Others have come from, or what their intentions are. Now that their boss is late for the meeting-and as rumors swirl that all the Others around the globe have disappeared from the public eye-the three are left to wait and wonder what an Otherless future might hold for them, should they be left at the mercy of the wider population. As one of the men comments regarding their tenuous position: "We are all equally to blame...if we are to blame at all." Issues of environmental degradation, income inequality, the influence of corporations and technology, and despotism and democracy are raised and explored. Theories about the origins of the Others abound; one of the men blames the Nazis ("I don't think these bozos came from another world...I think they're a creation...a creation of the Nazis...the ultimate master race").