Several years ago, playwright David Mamet gathered notice by coming out as a �" well, actually he came out as what he isn't. "Why I Am No Longer a 'Brain-Dead Liberal'" was the title of the widely disseminated newspaper article, but my initial intent was not to reference it when it came time to review The Anarchist. But after seeing the play, and then rereading Mamet's treatise, I find that the play is very much a dramatization of the non-liberal ideas he set forth in that essay �" largely based on his realization that people are not "inherently good at heart."
"Dramatization" may be an overreaching word in the case of The Anarchist, seen on Broadway in 2012, which can feel like a debate between a terse philosopher and a clever student. Every word spoken is subject to challenge, and any slip in attention takes its toll. But give credit to director John Fisher and his cast, whose Theatre Rhino production does find a dramatic tension beyond an exchange of ideas. True, the empathy solicited in support of that tension is something of a ruse to slap down an audience's brain-dead liberal instincts, but it is at least theatrical.
The setting is a prison office where an official of unspecified title is interviewing a convicted murderer before making a recommendation at a parole hearing. This is a murderer with celebrity, albeit fading after 35 years, who killed two police officers while she was part of a radical Weather Underground-type movement. The rather innocuously named Cathy (you'd think she'd be Catherine by now) grew up in privilege and wealth before finding her youthful calling at the feet of an iconic revolutionary. She believes she deserves her freedom for length of time served, remorse for her actions, good deeds done in prison, and the forgiveness she has found in her embrace of Jesus Christ as her lord and savior.
As Cathy makes her case for freedom, Ann, the starchy prison official, finds ways to undermine her charge's arguments. Mostly, she wants Cathy to give up the location of her still-on-the-lam lesbian lover and accomplice, but Ann also aims to dismantle the notions that once motivated Cathy and suss out any residue beliefs that the prisoner may still hold. Cathy suggests that Ann has some lesbian inclinations, but the same-sex angle doesn't seem pivotal in the matters of real importance to the play.
The play's two roles are not created equally, as Ann is mainly there with a stick to poke Cathy into doing linguistic maneuvers. Velina Brown plays Ann with a laser focus that can only hint at what may lay beneath a duty-bound surface. As Cathy, Tamar Cohn gets to take us on a journey through a life she claims she has righted in prison. This is where the pulse of the play can be found, sharply rendered in Cohn's performance, as Cathy's seeming self-assurance gives way to desperation that causes her to say a bit too much.
On Jon Wai-keung Lowe's institutionally austere set, Fisher keeps the verbal duels vital, which is not something the play easily offers up. As to Mamet's declaration of his de-liberalization, it is best not to be a "brain-dead" anything, and The Anarchist takes pains to make that point.
The Anarchist will run through Jan. 17 at Eureka Theatre. Tickets are $15-$30. Call (800-838-3006) or go to therhino.org.