Lee Blessing’s drama of rival arms negotiators, A Walk In The Woods, might be better titled Bargaining On The Bench, as this is really where the play’s two differing diplomats do battle.
Polly Sullivan’s set has the alfresco perch surrounded by birch trees reaching hopefully heavenwards, and a perforated woodland backdrop, but it is the humble, unassuming park bench that is central to the future of the world’s nuclear armament.
On it sit two negotiators; one an aging Russian man, the other a youthful American woman. As friendly and disarmingly amiable as Steven Pressley’s Andrey Botvinnik is, Myriam Cyr’s Joan Honeyman is determined and businesslike. As attuned to how the process of arms negotiation works his old head is, so she is naïve and unschooled.
Though it deals with and delves into the devious politics of arms, the wants and needs of superpowers and the sometimes unscrupulous, deceptive nature of diplomats, at times sounding unashamedly lecturing, at its heart A Walk In the Woods is a love story proving that opposites attract.
I don’t wish to mislead – unlike the play’s political posturers – there is no kissing, cuddling or happy ever after, but two strangers meet and, as the seasons change, so do their conversations and their relationship.
The sounding out and game playing of a glorious summer’s day becomes the open, frank exchanges of a chilly winter in the woods. The hopes of autumn become the realities of spring.
Possibly the casting of Cyr in the role of Honeyman – inspired by the appointments of Madeleine Albright, Condoleeza Rice and Hillary Clinton as US Secretary Of State – has exacerbated this relationship, the role being originally written for a man. But this is not that kind of love story. It is, rather, a tale of discovered common ground, growing understanding, learned respect and emerging friendship.
If Honeyman doesn’t fall for Botvinnik, audiences might; Pressley’s easy charm, dry wit and laid back guile make him irresistible. Cyr’s Honeyman is loveable in her own way; her passion, belief and throbbing angry vein endearing in their simplicity.
Under Nicolas Kent’s direction, the pair creates a surfeit of chemistry to make the evening go with a warm, witty, woodland bang.
MA