“C.Y.A.,” Kimberley Lynne?s entry to the 2007 Baltimore Playwrights? Festival, opens to the strains of the Guns N? Roses hit “Welcome to the Jungle.”
It?s not a jungle of vines or blackboards, but the corporate wilds of work wives and worker?s comp, mergers, nepotism, greed and sex.
Into this jungle of an investment banking firm plops a perky young recruit named Jane Columbus (Eileen Cuff) ? aptly named as, like the explorer, she is discovering a new world. It becomes clear that Jane bears watching when she exhibits psychic abilities and entertains her co-worker Mary (Janise Whelan) with history lessons about the Whiskey Rebellion, Lord Baltimore and the conquistadors ? morality tales about the abuse of power and the subjugation of classes. It?s Jane?s tale of “the Spanish, the Indians and the river” that plants a seed in Mary?s mind that comes to fruition by play?s end.
Rounding out the cast are Ken (Stephen Rourke), his son Jason (Zak Jeffries) and Jerry (Michael Leicht) ? like Enron?s “smartest guys in the room,” they do their best to make the numbers look good, remember their children?s ages, proposition Jane and perpetuate the myth that “we?re a family here.”
Conflict arises when it appears the company is about to be sold to the Japanese … or the Germans, Italians, or some other member of the former Axis, a stickler point for Jerry whose parents survived the London Blitz. Though near the head of the corporate hierarchy, Jerry is plagued by some of the same doubts as Mary, who becomes a metaphor for the average worker.
The characters speak of “the Great Wall of China” that separates their corporate life from family life. It?s also the protection afforded by a 401(k) and a steady paycheck. When Mary?s metal-worker husband is burned in job-related accident, life begins to break through the great wall.
Mary decides to forgo the company?s protection and become a “risk taker.” Ending the cycle of living only to “C.Y.A” ? cover your ass.
How she departs the corporate world turns out to be a lesson for everyone in the play … and the audience as well.
