Review: WARRIOR CLASS: Early Voting Projects a Win

Warrior Class

Written by Kenneth Lin, Directed by Dawn M. Simmons; Scenic Design, Jennifer McFarland Lord; Costume Design, Chelsea Kerl; Lighting Design, Daniel H. Jentzen; Sound Design, Elizabeth Cahill; Assistant Director, Mara Elissa Palma; Production Stage Manager, Diane McLean; Assistant Stage Manager, Danielle Pancoast

CAST: Steven Barkhimer, Michael Tow, Jessica Webb

Performances through November 13 at Lyric Stage Company, 140 Clarendon Street, Boston, MA; Box Office 617-585-5678 or www.lyricstage.com

If you think you've had enough politics for a lifetime and can't imagine choosing to see a play that is marketed as a "political thriller," allow me to encourage you to shift your paradigm. Warrior Class explores the back room dealings of a nascent political campaign, but the cat and mouse game devised by playwright Kenneth Lin (House of Cards) and authentic portrayals by a trio of actors provide thrills that will keep you guessing until the final blackout. Director Dawn M. Simmons paces the action to draw you in for a peek before dropping the net over your head.

Lyric Stage Company presents the Boston premiere of this timely play that questions how to define a candidate and whether or not someone is deserving of a second chance. Julius Weishan Lee (Michael Tow) is a New York assemblyman who has been dubbed (by Sean Hannity, of all people) as "The Republican Obama." On paper, he appears to have a promising future as the son of Chinese immigrants and a decorated war veteran. However, his cunning operative Nathan Berkshire (Steven Barkhimer) uncovers a woman from his past (Jessica Webb) who threatens to reveal a college transgression, potentially derailing Julius' train just as it is accelerating. Berkshire's heavy-handed attempt to craft a win-win outcome involves promises with strings attached, intrigue, and more than a little sleight of hand.

In many ways, Warrior Class feels like it is ripped from the headlines, as the saying goes, but Lin wants to do more than entertain us with a solid drama. He puts the audience in the position of choosing sides, although each of the characters is flawed and not especially likable (sound familiar?). Lee and Holly Eames (Webb) had a long-term relationship two decades earlier and each has a different view of how it ended. Berkshire's job is to do damage control and put forth his candidate as the accomplished man he has become, without the stain of a youthful impropriety. For her part, Eames feels that her life was changed by Lee's actions and she seeks reparation that may or may not involve a pound of flesh. As the story plays out, the sides drift further apart, and the game of hardball results in a Hobson's choice. Who wins and who loses? You won't get the answer from me, but you might feel the need to bathe when it is over.

The play is engaging, but it ultimately works because the actors ratchet up their performances as the stakes are raised. Berkshire seems like a helpful, reasonable guy doing his mundane job of vetting an Old Acquaintance, but there is a pool of unctuousness that shimmers just beneath his surface. Barkhimer's interpretation creates a character who is easily underestimated, a snake lying dormant until he is suddenly ready to strike. He manipulates the audience at the same time as Berkshire manipulates Lee and Holly. In her scenes with him, Webb rises to the occasion and shows a steely resolve born of Holly's years of struggling to rebuild her life. She has her finest moments when Holly and Lee meet privately to try to agree on a solution, taking command and taking him by surprise. Tow is steady throughout, but masterful in that scene when he has a lightbulb moment that shifts his character's perception of how this is going to end and what he needs to do.

Jenna McFarland Lord's convertible set serves as a bar/restaurant where meetings occur between Holly and Nathan, and Holly and Julius, and morphs into the Lee family kitchen. Lighting designer Daniel H. Jentzen puts some scenes in shadow and shines a bright light on others, underlining the nature of what is going on. In between scenes, Sound Designer Elizabeth Cahill adds to the atmosphere with jazzy, noirish music playing as the crew rearranges the set and furniture. Costume designer Chelsea Kerl subtly helps to define Holly's character in fashion terms.

Regardless of one's party affiliation, most of us will be relieved to put this nasty election behind us after November 8th. In other good news, Producing Artistic Director Spiro Veloudos announced that Lyric Stage Company has extended its lease agreement with the YWCA for an additional fifteen years at its present site. They will also establish a rehearsal space two flights up from the theater. That's a bipartisan win-win we can all get behind.

Photo credit: Mark S. Howard (Steven Barkhimer, Michael Tow)

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