Granville-Barker Speaks Truth to Power—but Who’s Listening?

by Lynne Stevens

“Waste” is like jumping into a snake pit. The male characters hiss and twist over their individual power and reputation.

Harley Granville-Barker’s 1906 play reveals Henry Trebell (powerful Lance Gardner) and Amy O’Connell (sparkling Liz Sklar) on a summer evening after a house party. As they strike elegant poses, they flirt to see who will give in to temptation first.

It’s just the sort of struggle that Henry, a Liberal English lawmaker, loves. Henry loves his job, not a woman. He wants to separate the Church from Schools to improve British education. But his passion is for ideals, not for people.

Henry tells Amy: “My spare time for love-making is so limited.” “Notoriously no Tory,” elegant Henry demands reform. But is he the man to do it? He seems harsh and lacks empathy.

The misogyny of Henry and his fellow MPs is shocking. They make condescending comments like, “My dear girl …,” to put down women. The audience laughs nervously at the audacity and ignorance of the men’s remarks. It’s 1906 and there are not many options. Women in 2025 are also running out of options as their reproductive rights are being stripped away. We are going backwards.

Strident piano music opens and ends each scene, courtesy of Jake Rodriguez. Arnel Sancianco’s surreal, austere, cut out set draws our gaze to lighting designer Kate Boyd’s shifting colors. Boyd shows the actors in silhouette, concealing their emotions.

Trebell regards other people as sentimental fools. He and his sister Frances (elegant Leontyne Mbele-Mbong) debate current events as they start their day. Frances is very up on what goes on in Parliament, yet wonders that she might have been a girls’ school head mistress, rather than her cold-hearted brother’s keeper.

Trebell’s government cronies fear for his his reputation. At first, they try to hush up the scandal and later, agree to let the gossips decide his fate: “Gossip in the house, club gossip, gossip in drawing rooms.” Gossip, like social media today, puts his fate in scheming hands. Think Musk.

The statesmen drone on and on, debating Henry’s sexual scandal. Great actors play varieties of manipulative powerbrokers: Jomar Tagatac depicts a moral but wily doctor. Anthony Fusco plays an elusive, transactional church leader.

Daniel Cantor plays the incoming Prime Minister, who keeps coming up with new, twisting ideas. The politicians twist and turn, filling the room with overbearing, patriarchal power. The superb actors debate ferociously, but to what end?  They expose their own blindness to human feelings.

As Justin O’Connell, intriguing Joseph O’Malley plays Amy’s spurned husband and Trebell’s loyal secretary, too.  As the husband, O’Malley explodes with righteous indignation at Trebell. Yet, they eventually agree that a woman has caused them both disgrace. Easy for husband and seducer to blame the woman.

“Why is it always the highest who fall?” ponder the men in the smoke-filled room. What a waste of talent, a waste of women’s lives, a waste of education. “Waste” still speaks to us about gender and arrogance in power.

“Waste” adapted & directed by Carey Perloff, scenic design by Arnel Sancianco, costumes by Maggie Whittaker, lighting by Kate Boyd, sound by Jake Rodriguez, at Marin Theatre, Mill Valley, California. Info: marintheatre.org – to March 2, 2025.

Cast: Lance Gardner, Liz Sklar, Leontyne Mbele–Mbong, Joseph O’Malley, Jomar Tagatac, Anthony Fusco, Anna Takayo, Daniel Cantor, and Mike Ryan.

Banner photo: Mike Ryan, Joseph O’Malley, Lance Gardner, Daniel Cantor, & Anthony Fusco contemplate the future of a bill. Photos: Chris Hardy