OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY

                What does a company with family values at the core of its existence do when attacked by a Wall Street shark? If you’re the owner of New England Wire & Cable, you do nothing. You’ve spent your entire life in a quiet Rhode Island town that’s built around your factory.

                For years, you’ve done the right thing, for your employees, for your community and for your stockholders. Sure, the company’s not doing great, but that’s because of the down-turned economy. Things will turn around. You believe that people are essentially good, so you can’t believe that Larry Garfinkle has any ulterior motives when he comes visiting from New York.

                Garfinkle’s motives are sinister. He specializes in finding companies that are worth more dead than alive, killing them, and making a profit from what remains. He smells money in the water that New England Wire & Cable is treading, and he goes after it.

                Other People’s Money takes a dark look at corporate greed, its consequences and its victims.

                Bev Darling and the crew at Attleboro Community Theatre do a nice job with a play written in the late 80’s, when corporate raiding dominated the financial headlines.

                Larry the Liquidator Garfinkle (Alex Aponte) worships at the altar of Ivan Boesky,  the poster boy of those times, and prides himself on making a fortune from other people’s money.

                To him, New England Wire & Cable is just another company ripe for the picking.

                To Andrew Jorgensen (Bert Cayer, Jr.), New England Wire & Cable is his life. He’s been at the helm for most of his life, and he’s proud to say that he’s always done right by the people and families who depend on his plant for their livelihood.

                A trusting, almost naïve, soul, Jorgy doesn’t see Garfinkle as a viper. Neither does his secretary/ companion, Bea Sullivan (Karen Gibson).

                Bill Coles (Lenny Contaxes), Jorgy’s number two, has a little more experience in the outside world. He knows exactly what Garfinkle is up to, and warns Jorgy that he needs to do something to protect the company.

                At first, Jorgy resists. By the time Garfinkle has gobbled up ten percent of the company’s stock, he relents. At Bea’s prodding, he calls in Bea’s daughter, Kate (Kim Alessandro), a high-powered Wall Street lawyer. Kate lives in Garfinkle’s world, and agrees to take up Jorgy’s cause, more to go head-to-head with Garfinkle than to do her mother’s bidding.

                With the battle joined, the action accelerates, switching between rural Rhode Island and metropolitan New York with breakneck speed, climaxing with a shareholder’s meeting that will decide New England Wire & Cable’s fate.

                Aponte’s Garfinkle is a crass pig, who does what he does more for the fun of the game than anything else. At one point, he suggests a sexual liaison with Kate to settle the affair. Aponte revels in the role. Adult situations and language are part of this show, by the way, so leave the kids at home.

                Alessandro appears to have been born for the role of Kate. Tough at times, compassionate at others, Kate plays the sex card to her advantage, and can manipulate with the best of them. When Garfinkle suggests that he and Kate are the same type of person, he’s not far off. It’s all just a question of which side you’re on.

                Cayer’s Jorgy is the polar opposite of Garfinkle. Quiet and gentle, but passionate about his family. When he addresses the stockholders, Cayer rises to the occasion, really making it “the speech of his life.”

                Contaxes’s Bill Coles is enigmatic. He wants to help save the company, but he also has to look out for himself. The internal struggle plays well on Contaxes’s face.

                Gibson does a nice job playing a part considerably older than her. She gleefully points out that she is in fact younger than Alessandro. Her role is secondary, but she makes the most of her moments.

                Other People’s Money is a faded snapshot of the financial world of 20 years ago, but there’s an awful lot of today in the show as well.

             Other People’s Money runs through March 2 at ACT, inside the Ezekiel Bates Masonic Lodge on North Main Street in Attleboro.

                                            Call 508.226.8100 for tickets and information, or log onto attleborocommunitytheatre.com]