Crow’s Theatre presents Rogers v. Rogers, a play based mostly on company struggles of Rogers Communications, and the household struggles behind it, opening in previews at the moment, December 2. It’s written by Michael Healey, and directed by Chris Abraham. The play stars Tom Rooney (Fifteen Canines, Uncle Vanya).
However — is a play based mostly on a company story actually fascinating sufficient to take the stage?
Those that’ve skilled Healey’s earlier company themed drama, The Grasp Plan, will know the reply is a powerful sure.
The Background
Ted Rogers constructed one in all Canada’s largest telecommunications firms, and when he died in 2008, he was the nation’s fifth richest individual by way of web value. What he left, nevertheless, along with cellular phone service and a media conglomerate, was an acrimonious state of affairs amongst his kids.
That state of affairs got here to a head in 2021 when his son Edward tried an organization takeover that embroiled him and his sisters, Melinda Rogers-Hixon, who had grow to be deputy chair in 2018, and Martha Rogers, who had served as chair of the corporate’s ESG (environmental, social, and governance) committee since 2021.
On the similar time, Rogers was trying to purchase Shaw Communications, which might give the corporate a better presence in Western Canada.
The excessive drama of company machinations and household feud makes fertile materials for theatre.
LV spoke to playwright Michael Healey concerning the present.
Michael Healey: The Interview
“The Rogers family exploding in public just a few years in the past was type of a novel occasion,” Healey feedback. “Normally […] we see what they need us to see.”
As he notes, within the social media period, public figures sometimes lead extremely curated lives — no less than from the skin. There are communications and picture specialists to advise them at each flip.
The play is predicated — together with the title — on writer Alexandra Posadzki’s 2024 e book Rogers v. Rogers: The Battle for Management of Canada’s Telecom Empire.
“The beauty of Alexandra’s e book was how uncareful these individuals have been abruptly being,” he feedback. It permits for an unusually candid view of the internal workings of the company and familial disaster.
It’s not solely the precise particulars of the state of affairs which can be of curiosity, significantly with at the moment’s headlines.
“It’s a type of enjoyable gateway into questions on why there’s an oligarchy within the telecom enterprise,” Healey remarks. As he factors out, Canadians pay a number of the highest charges for cellular phone service on the planet.
The story, at its coronary heart, boils right down to basic sibling rivalry. Ted Rogers’ daughter Melinda was favoured by him over his son Edward when it got here to enterprise issues.
“Edward began within the enterprise earlier than Melinda did,” Michael factors out. However, it was Melinda who confirmed a pure reward for management. Nonetheless, as time wore on, so did her persistence with the state of affairs. “Ultimately, she obtained bored with ready round.” Melinda would go on to start out her personal firm in California’s Silicon Valley. “Edward caught with it.”
Then, in 2021, he noticed his probability to take management.
The Play
In Rogers v. Rogers, one actor (Tom Rooney) performs all of the roles.
“There are lots of completely different roles,” Healey explains. “Tom Rooney is the actor, and he performs all of the components.”
Mixed with household drama, Rogers was trying to buy Shaw Communications on the time.
“I believed it was extremely odd that, when the company wanted to look organized […] that Edward would attempt to take over the group at that time.”
Matthew Boswell, Commissioner of Competitors, tried his finest to dam the merger, which might after all scale back competitiveness within the telecommunications sector much more.
“He failed,” Healey says. “I noticed an fascinating parallel between his try and do a tough factor on the general public’s behalf, and Edward’s try.”
After years of bickering in courtroom, the Rogers-Shaw merger was lastly authorised in 2023, albeit with situations connected. A public statement from Matthew Boswell, Commissioner of Competition, outlined his disappointment within the Tribunal’s last ruling.
Within the play, Edward and Matthew emerge as duelling protagonists.
“That is one other method that I get to get into the opposite facets [of the story].” As Michael factors out, the merger is a much less salacious, but additionally fascinating facet of the story.
Why is there so little competitors within the telecommunications trade in Canada? The play tries to get on the coronary heart of it. “Why that’s true in Canada and what might be carried out about it.”
Portraying either side of that story is an fascinating problem for an actor.
“Tom Rooney is a tremendous character actor,” Healey says, noting his heat and accessibility. “It’s a enjoyable recreation for the viewers.”
It’s not the primary time that Healey has tackled the intersection of enterprise and social points in theatrical kind.
In 2023, Crow’s Theatre produced The Master Plan, based mostly on Josh O’Kane’s bestselling e book Sideways: The Metropolis Google Couldn’t Purchase. It handled Sidewalks Lab, an affiliate of Google, an organization that attempted to take over a Toronto waterfront venture. Healey wrote the play based mostly on O’Kane’s e book.
“I’ve been writing about public coverage, politicians […] for about 20 years now,” Michael says. He’s involved with the societal fallout that outcomes from company shenanigans.
Within the case of The Grasp Plan, the deeper situation, for Healey, was about Canada as an entire.
“Why does Canada have bother innovating?” he wonders, citing essential areas like housing and sustainability. “What’s the fault in us that we will’t innovate on this space?”
A part of the issue with the Grasp Plan state of affairs was the involvement of Google, and the antipathy so many Canadians really feel concerning the firm. “Certain, Google might be a nasty thought, however what’s it about us that retains us from doing massive issues in these areas?”
In each tales, it’s a public servant who turns into a pure hero determine, a sympathetic character the viewers can relate to.
“We have to watch any person battle,” he says. “It’s all the time the onerous factor once you attempt to write one thing about politics and public coverage,” he provides.
“It’s taken me a very long time, and I’ve written numerous performs, to know what the task is,” he notes, “to create one thing enjoyable and wealthy. You possibly can’t create one thing on only a floor degree.”
He cites the necessity for such a play to be related, humorous, and provocative on the similar time, and to current a multi-layered interpretation of the story.
“A part of the sport of the night is to look at Tom Rooney play all these characters,” he says.
The climax of the story is a Zoom assembly between all of the events concerned.
“Tom performs all of the characters. It’s extraordinary to look at.”
Performances
The present opens in previews at the moment, December 2, with opening evening on December 10. Tickets are promoting quick.
“This play will probably be bought out for opening evening,” Healey says. In truth, many of the December dates are already bought out, with most others displaying restricted availability. “They simply opened up one other week of tickets.”
The run has already been prolonged to January 17, 2026, and should presumably be prolonged past that if tickets proceed to promote at this charge.
- Discover present particulars and tickets for Rogers v. Rogers [HERE].
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Anya Wassenberg is the Toronto Metropolis Editor at Ludwig Van. Beforehand, she was a contract author with a specialty in tradition and journey for 3 a long time, and a artistic writing teacher for Ontariolearn.
