Political Drama WASTE Announced At Marin Theatre Stars Lance Gardner This February

Marin Theatre kicks off 2025 with Waste, a provocative Edwardian drama that examines the unsavory side of politics.

The play follows an ambitious politician with a daring vision to disestablish the Church of England, Henry Trebell, played by Marin Theatre Artistic Director Lance Gardner, who returns to the stage for the first time in over five years. In Waste, Trebell's promising career is headed for disaster, as he scrambles to hide an illicit affair that has ended tragically. Rather than showing sympathy or outrage for the female victim, the work cynically focuses on the politician and his colleagues, who scheme to salvage his reputation. Although the play was written in 1906 by the accredited English actor, director, and playwright Harley Granville-Barker, a contemporary and colleague of G.B. Shaw, its debut was delayed until 1927 due to outrage over its content.

In a recent U.K. revival, British Theatre lauded Waste for its “crackling dialogue” calling it “Extraordinary. By some distance the best production to grace a National Theatre stage since Rufus Norris took the reins.” Director, playwright, producer, author, and educator Carey Perloff, artistic director emerita of American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, is set to direct this fresh take on a century-old play about skullduggery in politics that continues to prove remarkably timely.