Yesterday, I saw the Mint Theater Company's production of Garside's Career, Harold Brighthouse's political drama first produced in 1914.
Daniel Marconi plays Peter Garside, a laboring-class man with a gift for oratory who has earned a bachelor's degree while also working as an engineer.
In spite of the reservations of his fiancée Margaret, played by Madeline Seidman, Garside runs for parliament as a candidate of the Labour Party. He is invited to meet the mayor, who is supposed to be neutral in the election, but clearly opposes Labour.
This is where the show's set designers, Christopher and Justin Swader, get to really show off, transforming Garside's humble cottage into the lush drawing room of the mayor. Essentially all of the play's set pieces are visible throughout the show, but the actors rearrange them for each new scene, surprising us even when we've seen everything coming from the beginning.
In a way, this echos the play's structure. Margaret warns Garside what might happen if he embarks on a new career in politics, but he is filled with enthusiasm and doesn't want to hear. Blessed with the skills of a powerful orator, he collects fees for speaking engagements rather than attending to his duties in parliament. Like so many politicians in the U.S. today, be becomes more concerned with bolstering his own personal brand than representing the people who elected him.
Brighthouse is best known for his play Hobson's Choice, which premiered just a couple years after Garside's Career. He was also a friend and rival of Stanley Houghton--another member of the so-called "Manchester School" of dramatists--who penned the brilliant Hindle Wakes around the same time.
Director Matt Dickson helms this strong production, which also features Amelia White, Erik Gratton, Michael Schantz, Paul Niebanck, Sara Haider, Avery Whitted, and Melissa Maxwell.
The play is only running through the Ides of March, so see it now!
