Helen Banner's play, "Intelligence,"is a timely and poignant examination of the consequences - intended or unintended - of the current administration's evisceration of the U.S. diplomatic corps. The action takes place in the basement of a State Department building in Foggy Bottom. Three women - a senior State Department official and two young rising stars - are trying to figure out how to interact with a deadly leader in the Middle East whose cooperation they will need if any semblance of peace is to be achieved. It turns out that dealing with the off-stage enemies within the administration is just as challenging as dealing with an avowed jihadist.
Playwright Banner is not only a dramatist and librettist, she has also been deeply involved in creating choral works. So it makes sense that there is almost a musical quality to the rhythms and volumes of the dialogue that takes place among these three women as the tension mounts. As snippets of information flow into the isolated conference room, it becomes more difficult for each of these women to know who than can trust - within the trio, and in the world beyond. The three actors are superb in creating characters wrestling with being intelligence professionals in an administration that clearly does not value intelligence - in both meanings of that word. They are Actors Equity members Kaliswa Brewster as Lee Culvert, Amelia Pedlow as Paige Smith, and Rachel Pickup as Sarah MacIntyre.
The playwright cleverly paints with white space - allowing the audience to learn about developments outside the room, elsewhere in D.C. and in the Middle East, through inference from bits of gossip that each of the women bring back from their brief forays outside the room.We also get to imagine events that are transpiring in the outside world through the limited electronic communication available in the room.
I have wondered how professionals within our State Department are coping with being marginalized by our current POTUS. Ms. Bonner provides some credible answers, and they are disturbing in terms of America's role in shaping global policy now and into the foreseeable future.
"Intelligence" is tautly Directed by Jess Chayes, with Scenic Design by Carolyn Mraz, Lighting by Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew, Sound and Original Music by Sinan Reflik Zafar, and Costumes by Sophia Choi.
The play is presented by Lucy Jackson in association with Dutch Kills Theater. It runs through February 3 at Next Door@NYTW at 79 E. 4th St.
Enjoy!
Al
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