Rogers v. Rogers is a play about why "my frigging cellphone bill is so goddamn high"

Just before spring sprang in 2021, Rogers made a bombshell announcement that shocked corporate Canada and everybody everywhere with a cellphone.The biggest cable company in the country was buying the second biggest cable company in the country – Shaw Communications – for a whopping $26 billion.Nobody who wasn’t in on a cut of the action was for this deal. Consumer advocates decried it, customers freaked out and Shaw employees hated it, leading the Competition Bureau to try to block it in court.At the same time, behind the scenes, company scion Edward Rogers was trying to oust his mother and sisters to take full control of his departed father’s telecom empire. Much of the ensuing drama played out in public, like Canada’s very own version of HBO’s Succession.The Globe and Mail reporter Alexandra Posadzki, who was on the front lines reporting on both unfolding stories, detailed it all in her 2024 book, Rogers v. Rogers. Her award-winning book is now a one-man play opening this week at the Crow Theatre in Toronto, and in February in Winnipeg, followed likely by stints across the country.Playwright Michael Healey says the most interesting part of the book, for him, was in how it illustrates the massive political power that uber-rich families like the Rogers’ wield in Canada.He joins Do Not Pass Go to explain why he chose to orient his play around that aspect of the story – and why Competition Commissioner Matthew Boswell, is cast as the hero. Do Not Pass Go is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Do Not Pass Go at www.donotpassgo.ca/subscribe