After years of anticipation, Burbage Theatre Co closes their 10th season with the New England premiere Ayad Akhtar’s award-winning Junk. Set amidst a financial civil war in the 1980s spanning the US from Los Angeles to Wall Street, this gripping, fast-paced thriller explores the dynamics of money, greed, and power from an ever-shifting assortment of perspectives. Based on true events, Junk is as ambitious as it is accessible.

It’s 1985. Robert Merkin, the resident genius of the upstart investment firm Sacker-Lowell, has just landed on the cover of Time magazine. Hailed as “America’s Alchemist,” his proclamation that “debt is an asset” has propelled him to dizzying heights. Zealously promoting his belief in the near-sacred infallibility of markets, he is trying to reshape the world. What Merkin sets in motion is nothing less than a financial civil war, pitting magnates against workers, lawyers against journalists, and ultimately, pitting everyone against themselves.