For many years playwrights have been assiduously answering the call of hot-off-the-presses issues. One of the inarguably hottest in these Weinstein-Moonves-Cosby-Epstein-Lauer-Rose days is the #MeToo movement. The latest drama addressing the gritty problem is Dep Kirkland’s MsTRIAL, an earnest and insistent (note the preferred capital letters) two-acter about guess-what: sexual harassment in the workplace. This specific workplace belongs to a trial lawyer in an unnamed medium-sized town.
Kirkland himself is—actually, was—a lawyer, who over several decades applied his skills in many ways until he decided that, no matter how successful he’d been at various aspects of the profession, he’d quit it for what he’d always wanted to do: write and act.
Thus, among other plays listed in his program biography, he appears in his MsTRIAL as…guess what again: a trial lawyer. But in the character of trial lawyer John Paris he may have offered himself more of a stretch than might be imagined.
Perhaps when he was practicing law, Kirkland was as unpleasant as Paris unrelentingly is. Perhaps not. Paris is a genuine son-of-a-gun. On the pretext of keeping them on their toes, he makes a habit (as he stalks around Bill Clarke’s handsome lawyer’s-lair) of being constantly nasty to the two lawyers he’s hired for his firm.
One is gay nephew Dan Burks (Alan Trinca), who has no experience in court but is apparently ready, if not that eager, to learn. The other is Karen Lukoff (Christine Evangelista), an established whiz when facing a judge. When facing anyone, she’s a tall stunner. As such, she’s valuable to Paris for more reasons than one.
When Paris is introduced testing and taunting Burks and Lukoff, the three of them are shaping up a case involving a train accident and the death of a six-year-old girl. They’re representing the plaintiff. The preparation takes up plenty of stage time, probably more than Is needed to establish that Paris is bang-up at his job but an annoying varmint. For instance, more than once does the put-upon Burks—for whom his uncle does exhibit family affection—stride to the office door and announce he’s quitting.
But enough already of Paris’ machinations, especially since most, if not all, of the audience members have twigged to the real MsTRIAL conflict. (Patrons are again already put on notice by Kirkland’s title.) It’s fairly clear where Kirkland is heading—as if to a traffic accident.
All is revealed when, celebrating the case outcome, Paris and Lukoff—Burks is not present—run into he-said-she-said trouble. (Spoiler ahead, although surely not a surprising turn of dramatic events). Post-party-a-deux, Lukoff charges rape, which Paris denies. (The standard response in these cases, no?) What qualifies as a truly surprising development is Paris’ choice to lawyer him: nephew Burks. Furthermore, the previously unschooled relative shows signs of having quickly (too quickly?) acquired the pertinent skills.
So as a trial looms in act two, a preparatory trial takes place at the district attorney’s office. The heated give-and-take there appears to alert those involved that not one of them will be satisfied with the eventual result. And then Kirkland does particularly nicely by following the tense mock trial with an astutely written scene where Lukoff confronts Cathryn Baker (Janie Brookshire), the lawyer she’s retained to argue for her. Lukoff accuses Baker of not understanding enough about the medical details of rape to win their case. No slouch, Baker has a persuasive response to the complaint. Good writing.
Nothing further need be said of the plot and its denouement, other than that a video figures in and ultimately answers the question about who in the he-said-she-said testifying said the truth. What’s pertinent here is Kirkland’s depicting the disturbing reality of such a grim situation.
Bringing all this to the stage, director Rick Andosca has no trouble with his cast, which includes stenographer Barbara Cooley (Gayle Samuels), who at one point breaks her typing silence to offer good advice and welcome sympathy. Kirkland, with his shaved head and athlete’s build, deserves commendation for throwing himself into a hardly white-knight role with such vigor. Lukoff easily fills all the demands of hers. Trinca’s Burks and Brookshire’s Baker are seamless.
Also on hand and helping are costumer Mimi Maxmen, lighting designer Mitchell Fenton, and intimacy coach/fight director Judi Lewis Ockler. (N. B.: The recent advent of the intimacy coach may be another sign of wide-spread #MeToo repercussions, but that’s a story for another time.)
Kirkland’s days in court have clearly given him strong opinions about when, where and, particularly, if justice is served, and he looks intent on using his former life as fodder for the current one. He is paying unflinching attention to male behavior, too. He recognizes the persistent imbalance between the male and female status in today’s world. He may not send his urgent message as succinctly as he could, but he certainly sends it loud and clear.
MsTRIAL opened December 4, 2019, at New World Stages. Tickets and information: mstrialnyc.com
