{"id":108602,"date":"2025-02-16T11:27:16","date_gmt":"2025-02-16T19:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=108602"},"modified":"2025-02-16T12:06:17","modified_gmt":"2025-02-16T20:06:17","slug":"waste-packs-1906-societys-ills-into-play-paralleling-todays-woes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/waste-packs-1906-societys-ills-into-play-paralleling-todays-woes\/","title":{"rendered":"Waste packs 1906 society\u2019s ills into play paralleling today\u2019s woes"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/h3>\n

\"\"Amy O’Connell (Liz Sklar) and Henry Trebell (Lance Gardner) contemplate an affair in Marin Theatre’s Waste. Photo by Chris Hardy.<\/strong><\/em><\/h6>\n

<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

By WOODY WEINGARTEN<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s practically impossible to get away with cramming an excess of philosophical discussions into one drama.<\/p>\n

Like abortion, adultery, misogyny, reproductive rights, scandal, suicide, public education, corruption and back-stabbing politics, and church and state morality.<\/p>\n

But Carey Perloff, who for years was artistic director at the American Conservatory Theatre, has used a shoehorn to slide all of them into a 119-year-old British play almos<\/em>t seamlessly. She makes sure the accents hold; facial expressions, body language, and timing remain on target; lines sprinkled here and there to elicit laughter do so; and wave-like high and low vocal pitches preclude audience members nodding off.<\/p>\n

The director\/adaptor apparently could do little, however, about taking playwright Harley Granville-Barker\u2019s 2\u00bd talky hours (plus intermission) to slothfully reach the presumptive climax, which is predictable and therefore anti-climactic.<\/p>\n

Waste<\/em> is both the one-word title and descriptive reference point in the text to a multiplicity of subjects (including the brittleness of human lives).<\/p>\n

Lance Gardner, Marin Theatre\u2019s artistic director, paints a flawless onstage portrait of the heavily flawed main character, Henry Trebell, a politician who faces a series of emotional and real hurdles while hoping to eviscerate (\u201cdisestablish\u201d) the Church of England.<\/p>\n

Gardner, a Shakespearean-quality actor, hasn\u2019t acted in years but must have ridden a theatrical bicycle \u2014 his ability to memorize roughly 4,672 lines in conjunction with the audience\u2019s standing-ovation seem to demand he continue his sterling dual roles offstage and on.<\/p>\n

\"\"Lord Horsham (Daniel Cantor) listens to Justin O’Connell (Joseph O’Malley) as Henry Trebell(Lance Gardner) enters the room and Charles Cantelupe (Anthony Fusco) looks on in Waste. Photo by Chris Hardy. <\/strong><\/em><\/h6>\n
He is supported by a nine-member cast that\u2019s professional in every way: stiffly \r\nEdwardian when appropriate; chewing up the scenery when it\u2019s called for; using \r\nextreme mugging or body language to convey attitude.<\/span><\/pre>\n
Kudos particularly belong to Liz Sklar (who plays Amy O\u2019Connell, a fragile, conflicted woman on the prowl who repeatedly talks about her \u201cright to choose\u201d); Joseph O\u2019Malley (sharply doubling as Walter Kent, Henry\u2019s scaredy cat secretary, and Justin, Amy\u2019s cuckolded husband); Anthony Fusco (Charles Cantelupe, a blustering church leader); Jomar Tagatac (Dr. Wedgecroft, confidant and friend to Henry, whom the medicine man calls a \u201cvisionary\u201d); and Daniel Cantor (Lord Horsham, the cigar-puffing, incoming prime minister).<\/p>\n
Noteworthy, too, is the singular angled set, Arnel Sancianco\u2019s large cube with elongated horizontal openings on two sides, perhaps a visual reference to the many dualities in the text.<\/p>\n
Waste<\/em> was banned immediately after its 1906 debut because it deals with adultery and abortion. It was not produced again until three decades later \u2014 in a watered-down version. Its themes, however, are parallel to many of today\u2019s dilemmas, and surely Perloff was happy to direct the original narrative for that very reason.<\/p>\n
If your buttocks can handle the slow pacing and the fact that any hint of action takes place offstage, and if your mind has the capacity to permanently switch to on, go. If not, there are many mindless Family Feud<\/em>, Law and Order, and Blue Bloods <\/em>reruns waiting on your flat screen at home.<\/p>\n
Waste<\/em><\/strong> plays at Marin Theatre, 397 Miller Ave., Mill Valley, through March 2. Tickets: $30 to $85. Info: 415-388-5208 or\u00a0MarinTheatre.org<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Sherwood \u201cWoody\u201d Weingarten, a longtime member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle, can be contacted by email at\u00a0voodee@sbcglobal.net<\/a> or on his websites, https:\/\/woodyweingarten.com<\/a>\u00a0and https:\/\/vitalitypress.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Amy O’Connell (Liz Sklar) and Henry Trebell (Lance Gardner) contemplate an affair in Marin Theatre’s Waste. Photo by Chris Hardy. \u00a0 By WOODY WEINGARTEN It\u2019s practically impossible to get away…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":2.5,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-108602","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"