Writer and Director: Joe Edgar  

Four journalists meet on a Friday evening in the office of the Boston Globe, where they work. Marianne is reading aloud her work-in-progress, at length, to her editor Gloria and her colleagues Jennifer (Sydney Crocker) and Karl (Xavier Starr). It’s effectively a critique session.

The article she’s working on is about cranberry farming in the south of Massachusetts, with allegations that, because there is no longer any money in cranberries, farmers are using it as a cover for illegally mining sand and selling it to the building industry. The play, which runs 75 minutes without interval, is initially far too wordy and dull but gradually perks up with flashbacks into Marianne’s interviews, the beginning of a relationship with one of her interviewees, discussions with her therapist and eventually her loss of impartiality. The last 15 minutes of the play, when she and Gloria have a furious row about the function of journalism, are the most arresting.

Molly Hanly is excellent as Marianne: variously troubled, determined, confused, worried and eager to please. It’s a well-nuanced take on a big role. And there’s a powerful performance from Julia Welch, who gets all the sympathetic authority of an older editor just right. She has a distinct look of conductor Marin Alsop about her and uses a similar accent, which somehow stresses that she is unequivocally in charge of this office. Then she’s fun in a much smaller role as a forthright Mom on a cranberry farm who never stops cleaning.

This play is presented on the simplest possible set (no designer credited), consisting primarily of a coat rack, two office tables and two chairs. Joe Edgar and his cast make imaginative use of the tables, which are sometimes pushed to the sides. In one scene, they become a car, driven by Hanly with Crocker and Welch pushing it round bends on cue. The tables briefly serve as a bed, too.

It’s an interesting idea for a play, touching as it does on climate change, the nature of truth and professionalism in the media, along with other contentious and topical issues. There is, however, too little action to make really satisfactory drama, and it often feels flat.

Runs until 29 November 2025

Star rating: 2.5