JUNK by Pulitz Prize Playwright Ayad Akhtar - Traders Making Millions off Murky Junk Debt Dealings

JUNK is a play set in the mid 1980s in NYC/LA  about a high rolling trader Robert Merkins making millions by manipulating stocks, bonds & people regardless of rules or scruples.  The end justifies the means and the end means is money.  "A man is defined by what he has", according to billionaire Les Tresler (a wonderful Michael Siberry).  Tresler is not the leading character in this fine ensemble cast & fast paced play.  Robert Merkin (a charismatic & convincing Steven Pasquale) is the young, alpha male whose credo is making money by any means be they illicit or complicit in bending the laws.  "If you can see what no one else can see, misdirect debt ..." or intent you are the king and the more capital you have, the more power.   Ayad Akhtar (b Amer 1970) is a Pakistani/American playwriter & author.  His play DISGRACED earned him the Pulitzer & a Tony nomination.  DISGACED deals with Islamophobia and Muslim Americans self-identifying struggles.  Akhtar is a brilliant & powerful playwright.  JUNK takes on the sharks of the stock exchange who play by their own rules; fearless, without remorse for whomever gets dumped on in their greedy ply for financial killings.  Akhtar also attacks the anti-semitic, 2nd class status of Jewish Americans, which are the key figures in large scale fraudulent stock exchange trading.  Robert Merkin is a fictitious amalgamation of callous & deceitful known convicts: Michael Milken, Bernie Madoff and New York's father/son Robert & Sean Stewart.  Sean (who uncannily resembles the Robert Merkin character) was recorded by Feds saying to his father "I can't believe I handed you this on a silver platter and you didn't invest in it." The characters in the play all copped plea deals resulting in minimal fines & prison time.  The wheelers & dealers turn squealers to pass the blame & minimize their culpability.  The play has an excellent ensemble cast, a sleek pace verbose dialogue and a haunting black/white palette all contribute to an intense & complex analysis of corruption that flies overhead much of the time.  "It's like Chinese.  A different language people don't understand".  JUNK catches the money players playing dirty with their hands caught in the cookie jar.  I found Akhtar's JUNK an alarming thunk to the head.  The war on Wall Street is relentless machine that will continue to feed on people's greed with disregard for the working class & those with integrity.