What started out as a scene between two businessmen in a conference room for a playwriting class became an hour-long play about two businessmen in a conference room… and poop.

“Clogging the System” was conceived, written and directed by Harrison Postler, senior communication studies major. Performed in the Interpreters Theatre Feb. 28-March 2, the show was free to University of Northern Iowa students and the general public. The small theater seated about 90 people and was almost at capacity before the show began.

The first scene started with two businessmen who learn they are going to be fired from their jobs. Tom, played by UNI student Michael Taylor, is a young worker fresh out of college who is full of wit, cunning and humor, but lacks perspective. Gil, played by Taylor Coons, senior history major, is a man who has worked at the company for the past 22 years, whose realism and stubbornness help him survive every workday.

The unlikely pair hit it off and became partners who proposed a company policy in which bathrooms would be replaced by public toilets.

“No public bathrooms, just toilets,” said an excited Tom as he looked toward Gil.

“It’s a s—-y idea,” replied Gil with a smile on his face.

After the proposal was accepted by a not-so-hardworking company owner, the idea of “synchronomacitation,” or public toilets, met backlash from employees of the company and a certain stay-at-home housewife.

“You two are going to hell,” retorted Marcia, played by Coral Thede, communication studies major.

As time progressed, the open toilet policy started to have an effect on the company. Employee happiness and production were higher than they had been in years.  
“It’s like the new water cooler, but better,” said Gary, played by Luke Hansen, electronic media major. “I can poop in it and not get in trouble for it!”

Describing the toilet as his throne in the office, Gary had fallen in love with the toilets because he could catch up with a coworker, drink coffee and eat while doing his business.

Add in the catalyst of the girl high on shrooms who handcuffed herself to the toilet, and “Clogging the System” became a tangled mess that could only be defined as eloquently as the character Gil described: “What a s—storm.”

Full of puns about poop and explicit language, “Clogging the System” was not for the faint of heart. It may have been a comedy centered around poop, but it also explored the humanity of the employees within corporate America.

“I feel like there was a level of honesty within the simplicity,” said Sophia Landis, senior electronic media major and “Clogging the System” cast member.

The small cast took the simplicity of “Clogging the System” and, through experimentation, collaboration and practice, presented a piece with complex allusions about self-acceptance, hate, big business and, yes, poop.

“ … For some reason humanity has yet to embrace itself fully. I don’t know if I’d love fully public toilets, but they stand as a metaphor for a lot of other natural things in life that society won’t yet accept,” said Landis.

Gary, the first employee in the office to use the toilets, adopted the idea because he no longer wanted to live his life in shame for something everyone’s body does naturally.

“If I could poop in public, what else was there left to feel,” screamed a liberated Gary.

Through the use of comedy, satire and (of course) fart jokes, “Clogging the System” challenged the ideologies of various structures within Western society.

“All of this is made up,” said Gil in reference to corporate America. “Money is around because we need a made-up system to keep us from killing ourselves.”

“Clogging the System” described big businesses as companies where workers are treated like pawns, creating a divide between the common worker and the owner.

“Jobs aren’t supposed to be fun,” said Gil. “I show up every day for the paycheck.”

Aside from workplace woes, self-liberation and acceptance were recurring themes in the show.

“You’re washing away hate in the corporation,” said Dandelion, played by Landis, as she handcuffed herself to the toilet in the corner of the office.

According to Gil, the toilets made employees feel “better, freer and lighter.”

“Being open and unashamed can bring great things if people are willing to accept it without judgment,” commented Landis.

The audience seemed receptive of these messages as they laughed during the funny moments and sat attentively during the more dramatic scenes.

“It took a very creative mind to come up with this,” said one audience member during the talk-back after the show. “And that’s a compliment!”

“So far I think they (the audience) have loved it, and that’s what makes it worthwhile,” said Landis.