Harley Granville-Barker’s Waste has a familiar plot: A politician makes a decision that could ruin his career and the lives of his loved ones.
It also has a familiar controversy: The play was banned for discussing abortion and questioning politics. What’s surprising is that instead of being another modern censorship issue, this happened in 1906 in England. It is also the next show on the Marin Theatre stage.
“The core questions about what it is to be human don’t change,” says Marin Theatre artistic director Lance Gardner.
“We think these political questions are new,” agrees director Carey Perloff. “They were debating democracy and women’s agency in ancient Athens.”
Perloff would know that. She was the youngest woman to lead a League of Resident Theatres operation (a prominent professional theater association in the U.S.). She’s also a long-term collaborator of playwright Tom Stoppard and an award-winning playwright herself. In short, she is a giant in the theater world.
“Carey sells herself,” Gardner says with a laugh when asked how he convinced the Marin Theatre board to do the show.
“These sorts of plays are honey to actors,” Perloff notes. “There is a deliciousness in these shows that actors love. With the help of Marin Theatre casting director Laura Steele, we cast the play one day last August.”
In a business where casting can take weeks, if not months, the quick casting attests to the truth in Perloff’s statement.
Gardner himself (after some persuasion from Perloff) agreed to play the lead character.
“I haven’t been onstage for five years,” he says of his reluctance to take on the intricate character. “It’s also different as the company leader.”
“He is good,” Perloff says of her lead actor. “Of course, the whole cast is.” This is a strong statement, considering that Perloff is also the “adaptor” of the play. She quickly points out that she uses that word loosely. “I streamlined some more obscurely British parts, but the play is all Granville-Barker. Specifically the 1906 version,” she notes.
After the play was banned, Barker toned down some of the more controversial items. Barker was allowed to produce the second version in 1927. However, the 1906 version resonates with Perloff.
“In the 1906 version, he is so compassionate about his women. They are strong and smart and stand up for themselves,” Perloff explains.
“This season centers on feminism,” Gardner says, “This play is interesting because it doesn’t center the women, which allows the men to indict themselves.”
“Some of the men’s lines will make you cringe,” Perloff agrees. “But it allows us to ask central questions about the functions of men and women in our world. What is a waste of a human being? What makes a life mean something?”
“The play is very much about what drives our decisions and the consequences of those choices,” Gardner adds.
“It can only be done theatrically,” Perloff says, then elaborates. “Why should we ask people to
come back to the theater? Because only on stage can you tell this story this way. Our set is an abstraction of a British house, making the staging feel like a chess game. The danger of human bodies in real-time. You cannot get that from the screen.”
Gardner adds, expanding on this timely issue within the theater community, “There is a lot of bad theater that doesn’t respect their audience. This show isn’t didactic. It asks you to make up your mind.”
Performances of ‘Waste’ run Feb. 6 to March 2 at Marin Theatre, 397 Miller Ave., Mill Valley. 415.388.5200. Info and tickets at marintheatre.org.
