THEATER REVIEW
“Warrior Class”
Grade: C+
7:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Thursdays. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. 2:30 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays. 7:30 p.m. Sundays. Through Nov. 17. $25-$38. Alliance Theatre, Hertz Stage, 1280 Peachtree St. N.E., Atlanta. 404-733-5000, alliancetheatre.org.
Bottom line: Political drama feels a bit thin.
Julius Weishan Lee is the total package: Harvard graduate, war veteran, powerful speaker and rising star of the New York State Assembly. Next stop: Washington.
But when the Asian-American whom pundits call the “Republican Obama” dispatches a party affiliate to do his dirty work, things start to fall apart for the polished and articulate politician.
Such is the setup for Kenneth Lin’s “Warrior Class,” a new play from the author of “… said, Said,” which won the 2006 Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition. While Lin’s Alliance debut was a masterful suspense tale about a Nobel Prize-winning Algerian poet with a complicated political past, his new Hertz Stage drama examines the brutal underside of contemporary American politics.
So before rising star Julius (Moses Villarama) can get dunked in the fishbowl, his crony Nathan (Clayton Landey) must scrutinize every detail of this wonder boy’s personal life, including his relationship with college girlfriend Holly (Carrie Walrond Hood). If we are to believe Holly, Julius was more than a little unstable when they broke up, and before you know it, he’s being compared to Virginia Tech mass murderer Seung-Hui Cho.
Et tu, Brute?
“Warrior Class” is an intriguing study of backroom deal-making — with all its viciousness and venality, bribery and blackmail. Every character has a hidden agenda (or three), and Lin builds an absorbing house of cards.
It’s a sordid affair with some surprising twists and turns, but at the end of director Eric Ting’s production, “Warrior Class” feels a little thin. Villarama’s Julius comes off as shrewdly charismatic, yet also vulnerable; he is a fascinating portrait of a man who probably deserves but may never get a chance at victory. I couldn’t muster much feeling, however, for the desperate Holly or the incorrigible Nathan, whom Landey imbues with smarminess and actorly predictability.
No doubt about it: Lin is a writer of some skill, but this story feels underdeveloped and, at 80 minutes, so economically told that it barely registers when it ought to be riveting. Mimi Lien’s set uses a turntable and a handful of props to suggest the smoky Baltimore steakhouse where Nathan is a regular and Julius’ sleek apartment, but I found the wheel of fortune a little annoying — with actors sometimes positioned so that you couldn’t see directly into their faces.
With “Warrior Class,” Lin has a few things to say about the scummy nature of American politics, where even the most promising players fall prey to lies, corruption, manipulation and greed. It’s just that he doesn’t cover much that we don’t know already.
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