Daniel Marconi and Amelia White Photo by Maria Baranova

The play opens with Peter Garside (Daniel Marconi), a small-town mechanic, defying expectations by earning a BA with honors from his Northern England university. His doting mother (Amelia White, who can deliver a withering putdown while maintaining a twinkle in her eye) never doubted his accomplishments, while his sweetheart, socialist schoolteacher Margaret Shawcross (Madeline Seidman), is more pragmatic. Despite understanding the difficulties working-class men encounter, Margaret is nevertheless hopeful for his success in building a respectable career and a comfortable home.

Assuring her he can support a family working as a journalist, Peter also intends to pursue his passion for public speaking. In Margaret's view, though, oratory is a greater menace than alcohol, and she insists he quit cold turkey. She says, "I've seen men ruined by this itch to speak. You know them. Men we thought would be real leaders of the people. And they spoke, and spoke, and soon said all they had to say, became mere windbags trading on a reputation."

Peter's reputation as a "silver-tongued" speaker prompts his friends and fellow labor activists (amusingly played by Erik Gratton, Paul Niebanck, Michael Schantz) to urge him to run for a vacant seat in Parliament. Naturally, his mother is all for the idea, but Margaret, although supportive of his candidature, has visions of a simpler domestic life and calls off the engagement.

On the posher side of town, the wealthy Mottram family schemes to stymie Peter's election. They include Lady Mottram (Melissa Maxwell, who is deliciously villainous and imperious), the steely matron who despises anyone that reeks of Socialism. Her children, Gladys (Sara Haider, slyly seductive) and Freddie (Avery Whitted, buoyant and charming), are spoiled and entitled, but they are strangely fascinated with the Peter's brash and unpolished manner.

Presented in four acts, Garside's Career shows the irresistible allure of money and power and adroitly charts the protagonist's rise to confirmed windbag. Though the final act sags somewhat because of excessive moralizing, the play remains an expertly crafted work overall. The Mint excels at reviving Edwardian plays by writers like St. John Hankin, John Galsworthy, Harley Granville-Barker, and Stanley Houghton, and this production is no exception.

Under Matt Dickson's direction, the production maintains a consistent and effective pace, deftly balancing melodrama and comedy of manners. As Garside, Marconi doesn't possess a mellifluous voice that the other characters speak about in awe, but he is scrappy and energetic as the morally conflicted Labour Party representative. Seidman's performance doesn't convey the grit required to make her a formidable adversary to the play's pair of overbearing mothers. However, she and Marconi create a believable and sympathetic connection as lovers, drawing the audience to root for them.

A winning design team bolsters the production. Kindall Almond's period costumes dexterously illuminate class distinctions, and Yiyuan Li's masterful lighting, with its warm tones and striking contrasts, evokes early twentieth-century theatre. Christopher and Justin Swader's scenic design is a marvel of ingenuity. Set pieces, stacked against the back wall, are dynamically arranged by the actors themselves to the accompaniment of working-class or union songs, cleverly underscoring the play's labor theme. Carsen Joenk's sound design enhances the sense of political unrest.

While the Mint Theater doesn't always unearth treasures, Garside's Career is a genuine find.