A gripping new play has arrived in Cambridge, and Boston theatergoers would be wise to take notice. Ken Urban's The Moderate is now playing at Central Square Theater as a Catalyst Collaborative@MIT Production, running through March 1, 2026. This 90-minute, one-act drama dives headfirst into the dark, largely invisible world of social media content moderation, and the result is a theatrical experience that is as dazzling as it is deeply unsettling.

The Moderate at Central Square Theater

The play follows Frank Bonner, a middle-aged man whose life is unraveling. Separated from his wife Edyth, buried in debt from secretly taking out loans to finish a college degree, and struggling to connect with his teenage son, Frank is desperate for work. It's the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in March 2020, and jobs are scarce. The one he lands pays $17 an hour and comes with a vague job description: he'll be a "content moderator" for a social media platform that bears an unmistakable resemblance to Facebook. What begins as a seemingly mundane gig quickly spirals into something far more harrowing, as Frank finds himself spending shift after shift scrolling through the worst of what humanity posts online, making rapid-fire decisions to accept or reject disturbing content with no ability to intervene, no matter how alarming the material.

The brilliance of Urban's premise is how it transforms a largely hidden corner of the tech industry into riveting, emotionally devastating drama. The play forces audiences to confront an uncomfortable truth: behind the algorithms and corporate policies of the world's biggest platforms, real human beings are absorbing a relentless stream of horrific content, from violence to child exploitation, and paying a steep psychological price for it. Urban raises pointed questions about corporate responsibility, the moral ambiguity of moderation guidelines, and what happens when the rules deny basic human instinct.

What has critics raving is the extraordinary multimedia staging by director and multimedia designer Jared Mezzocchi. The production surrounds the audience with large, wraparound screens that extend up the sides of the theater, plunging viewers directly into Frank's overwhelmed psyche. The effect is visceral and immersive — audiences don't just watch Frank's world collapse, they feel it closing in around them. The creative team behind the technical elements, including assistant projections designer Emery Frost, scenic designer Sibyl Wickersheimer, lighting designer Kevin Fulton, and sound designer Christian Frederickson, has been widely praised for crafting an environment that is both visually stunning and thematically powerful. The way characters gradually emerge from the screens onto the physical stage, as if materializing out of cyberspace itself, has been called one of the production's most striking and meaningful choices.

At the center of it all is Nael Nacer's commanding performance as Frank. Nacer captures both the character's slow psychological disintegration and his stubborn determination to do something good in a world that seems designed to crush that impulse. His portrayal is raw and deeply human, anchoring the production's high-tech spectacle with genuine emotional weight. The story takes a particularly affecting turn when Frank encounters a video from a teenage boy named Gus, played with sensitive nuance by Sean Wendelken, who is pleading for help after being beaten by his father. Frank's desperate need to intervene, despite corporate rules forbidding it, becomes the emotional heart of the play.

The supporting cast has drawn equal enthusiasm. Celeste Oliva brings depth to the role of Edyth, making the couple's fractured marriage feel painfully real and immediate. Greg Maraio is excellent as Martin, Frank's supervisor, who navigates the line between corporate loyalty and personal decency with a disarming mix of charm and cynicism. And Jules Talbot has been singled out as a scene-stealer in the role of Rayne, Frank's fellow moderator, who is sharp, witty, and empathetic despite bearing the weight of her own unbearable assignments monitoring child exploitation content. Talbot delivers the play's best one-liners while conveying a wisdom and resilience that belie the character's youth.

Urban, a senior lecturer in dramatic writing at MIT and a prolific playwright with over a dozen full-length productions to his name, demonstrates remarkable finesse in weaving together Frank's professional nightmare and personal crisis. The play asks big questions about the screens that dominate our lives, the hidden human cost of our digital world, and whether genuine connection and compassion can survive in a system engineered to suppress both. While the production doesn't shy away from disturbing imagery — audiences should be aware that the show is recommended for ages 17 and up and contains graphic content — the artfulness of the presentation ensures that the difficult material serves a larger, deeply humanistic purpose.

The Moderate is playing at Central Square Theater, located at 450 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, through March 1, 2026. Tickets range from $27 to $103 and can be purchased at centralsquaretheater.org or by calling 617-576-9278. Performances are limited, so securing tickets sooner rather than later is strongly recommended. This is a production that will stay with you long after you leave the theater.