1914. Midlanton, Greater Manchester, England. We hear “Solidarity Forever” sung as scenery is moved into place. (Live songs are deftly employed to enhance atmosphere.) This is a union village. Mrs. Garside (the splendid Amelia White, as effective glaring as she is remonstrating) waits in their modest cottage anxious to learn how her son Peter (Daniel Marconi) did on his exams. A degree would mean better position as an engineer and a secure future.
Daniel Marconi (Peter Garside); Amelia White (Mrs. Garside)
Also waiting is Peter’s girlfriend, schoolteacher Margaret Shawcross (Madeline Seidman). Mrs. Garside doesn’t think any woman good enough for her cosseted son and takes no pains to hide her feelings. She’s derogatory and rude. That Peter’s vocabulary is often beyond his mum’s comprehension is a wonderful touch.
Peter has done it! When his mother goes out to proudly spread the word, he praises Margaret for inspiring him. Unsatisfied with a regular job, it’s the ambitious young man’s intention to write and get public speaking engagements. Margaret doesn’t like the idea. “The itch to speak is like the itch to drink, you’d speak yourself tipsy…I want a husband. I don’t want to marry a career.” Agreeing with the socialist agenda, her own aspirations are modest.
Michael Schantz (Karl Marx Jones), Erik Gratton (Denis O’Callaghan), Paul Neibanck
(Ned Applegarth) Daniel Marconi (Peter Garside), Madeline Seidman (Margaret Shawcross),
Amelia White (Mrs. Garside)
When the Amalgamated Society of Engineers – represented by Karl Marx Jones (Michael Schantz), Ned Applegarth (Paul Neibanck), and Denis O’Callaghan (Erik Gratton) – offers to promote him as their labor candidate for Parliament, Peter successfully sidesteps pedestrian employment. All three actors are as credible as their more frequently heard peers. They carry themselves like working men.
Peter has stars in his eyes. He charismatically campaigns in the streets and wins. Margaret continues to speak for socialist causes, but distances from her otherwise occupied beau.
Meanwhile, Gladys Mottram (Sara Haider), the daughter of the opposition, has been attending Peter’s speeches at the periphery of crowds. She’s drawn to him, but a born and bred snob, thinks he’s below her class. The push/pull of intentions is blatantly controlled by Peter’s power and income. (Haider’s acting is one note.) Her mother, Lady Mottram (a solid Melissa Maxwell) and brother Freddie Mottram (Avery Whitted) have no knowledge of the attraction.
Sara Haider (Gladys Mottram), Avery Whitted (Freddie Mottram), Melissa Maxwell (Lady Mottram)
Avery Whitted is worth special mention. He so inhabits the role, one immediately imagines the actor in any narrative – especially period pieces – requiring idiosyncratic character. There’s a lightness to Freddie, appealing innocence, and unlikely integrity. He even moves as one might imagine.
When we next see Peter, he’s living very well in London. Mrs. Garside still attends to every need. Extremely popular and busy as a speaker, the country lad has gotten way too big for his britches, neglecting Parliament and labor issues. Questioned, he readily and proudly admits, “I live by selling adulterated truth. I do these things to make money.” Sound familiar?
Daniel Marconi (Peter Garside)
The hero’s precipitous fall is blindingly fast and far. He has, or as Margaret comments “indulges in” a breakdown. Never fear, however…A two-handed parentheses with grounded, still in love, Margaret is masterfully written and played; a wonderful showcase for theater class.
Harold Brighouse’s Margaret is unwaveringly self possessed; smart, pragmatic, capable. In an era when women had yet to achieve any kind of parity, on the cusp of Sylvia Pankhurst’s campaign for enfranchisement, the playwright has created a strong, working class woman. Actress Madeline Seidman takes on the mantle with low key dignity making her sympathetic, even admirable.
As Peter, Daniel Marconi is brash, cocky, and vulnerable. Brighouse has written him exceptionally articulate, an attribute well manifest. That the character knows he’s not yet in full flower and doesn’t allow for the possibility of failure is well played. Shock is palpable. After effects reveal the pampered boy beneath bravado. An actor to watch.
Daniel Marconi (Peter Garside), Madeline Seidman (Margaret Shawcross)
Direction (Matt Dickson) is fly-on-the-wall realistic. Little moments, like Freddie absently handing his crumpled peanuts bag to Mrs. Garside, as if she were a servant, and Gladys, suddenly, briefly, dispensing with propriety, curling her legs beneath her on a couch are grand. A fight that almost occurs elicits intake of breath. Flow is organic; movement motivated; reaction given time to first hear.
Sets by Christopher Swader and Justin Swader evoke period and economics with perfect detail. (Chris Fields – excellent props.) Even doorways are decoratively correct. Kindall Almond’s costumes follow suit, character appropriate, aesthetic onstage together and well tailored. Sound (Carden Joenik) ranges from unnerving crowds to pristine vocals.
Amy Stoller’s dialects are all of a (geographic) piece with nuanced class distinctions.
Photos by Maria Baranova
Mint Theater Company presents
Garside’s Career by Harold Brighouse
Directed by Matt Dickson
Through March 15, 2025
Theater Row Stage 4
410 West 42nd Street
