Review: Garside’s Career, a Relic of British Classism or Deep Satire?

Peter Garside is the kind of ambitious, magnetic, dubiously scrupulous figure we Americans celebrate, and occasionally elect President. But across the pond, where they cling to their mildewed class system like Linus to his security blanket, it’s another story—one told with brutal clarity in Harold Brighouse’s political satire Garside’s Career, now making its New York debut with Mint Theater Company, the little off-Broadway company dedicated to mining the shadowlands beyond our limited theatrical repertoire. In this case, they’ve struck pyrite, but have managed to pass it off as gold in a highly polished production.

The play opens with Mrs. Garside (Amelia White) waiting anxiously for the return of her son Peter (Daniel Marconi), who has just sat for his final university examination. Peter’s schoolteacher girlfriend, Margaret (Madeline Seidman exuding chaste reproach), cautions her not to get her hopes up. After all, Peter is just a working-class mechanic.

But to Margaret’s shock and delight, he has passed with first-class honors. Peter sees his BA as his ticket out of the factory and Midlanton. He also recognizes how his talent for public speaking could propel him to even greater heights. When a trio of local Labour Party grandees (Erik Gratton, Michael Schantz, and Paul Niebanck) suggest he run for parliament, he leaps at the chance—over Margaret’s objections.

The next three acts chart Peter’s meteoric rise from wiping grease off his hands to gladhanding as an MP. He occupies a luxurious London flat, afforded by his speaking fees. A dyed-in-the-wool socialist, Peter manages to drive up the price of his appearances by encouraging bidding wars among Labour organizers. He also woos Gladys Mottram (Sara Haider), daughter of Midlanton aristocrat Sir Jasper, who is decidedly not a Labour voter. Peter is 26 and on top of the world—so we’re not surprised when it all comes crashing down.

It’s tempting to place Garside’s Career in a dramatic tradition stretching back to Athens, in which those who seek to wield godlike power are invariably punished for their hubris. The works of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides teach us to stay humble and embrace our fate—but, of course, they were all men of leisure who almost certainly owned slaves, so they would say that, wouldn’t they?

Garside’s Career could easily devolve into a cautionary tale for the working class: Make yourself small and don’t strive above your station. But it never does thanks to the shrewd direction of Matt Dickson, who treads the border between tragedy and satire like a particularly agile alley cat on a wire fence.

Excellent design provides the foundation, with the set (by Christopher and Justin Swader) evoking a turn-of-the-century train station, a constant reminder of the technological advances that have offered poor men of talent like Peter unprecedent opportunity for mobility, if only they are brave enough to seize it. We hear the ghostly whistle (similar to the one that brought change to Anatevka) ring out over the theater in Carsen Joenk’s evocative sound design, which also conjures a baying mob in the wings. Kindall Almond’s detailed period costumes convey both class and ambition as we see Peter’s modest wool suit give way to tails and a smart pocket square. Every brooch and bit of lace contributes to specific and delicious performances.

This cast dives into Dickson’s fully realized world like they’re in a Netflix costume drama, and the effect is just as satisfying onstage. White sets the pace as Mrs. Garside, expressing her disdain for Margaret in a barrage of motherly midlands shade. Melissa Maxwell has us rolling as the Edwardian battle-ax Lady Mottram, while Avery Whitted seems to have just stepped out of an Oscar Wilde play as her shiftless son, Freddie. Niebanck and Schantz (who plays a character named “Karl Marx Jones”) are convincingly menacing as a pair of Labour toughs. And Haider perfectly embodies the breathless exhilaration of a bored rich girl having her first encounter with rough trade—is it love, or is her corset too tight?

Marconi’s irresistible charm suggests the former. In his big earnest eyes (masking multiple lies) and simmering flirtation (he can turn it on for anyone, man or woman), I was reminded of Bill Clinton. But in his pitiless calculation and willingness to threaten with a smile, it’s clear that this is a mob boss in the making. He sees the old world unraveling and he’s ready to grab as much as he can for himself in the new.

So vital is Marconi that I had a hard time buying Peter’s defeat, which arrives with practically no resistance from our wily protagonist. Garside’s Career is short, a quick ascent to the sun before a violent plummet to earth. Peter is Arturo Ui successfully resisted, a plotline that feels sadly unbelievable in 2025. As Margaret steers him stage left toward his mediocre future, Marconi shoots the audience a tiny look of desperation. It’s the expression of a hostage as he’s led away from the camera after reading a statement about how well he’s being treated. And we all instantly know one irrefutable truth: This man is going to have a spectacular midlife crisis.