Red flag: If a man proposes by saying “I thoroughly admire you and—er—respect you,” he might not be The One. Then again, you can’t blame the immensely practical George Pillatt (Gene Gillette) for going after Kate Rolling (Sara Haider), a fellow shopkeeper with an eye for style and a brain for business. He sees their potential union as a merger, or, as Elizabeth Baker titled her play, a Partnership. “We two hold the pick of the trade here. We do very well separate, no doubt. Together we could top the lot,” Pillatt says of the prospect of combining their respective Brighton clothing boutiques—his larger and more moneyed, hers smaller but up-and-coming—into one booming business.
[Read Roma Torre’s ★★★★☆ here.]
“How many proposals is that this month between us, Kate?” asks her associate Maisie Glow (a ripping Olivia Gilliatt). Four. And that’s before Pillatt pops the question. Replies Kate: “I’m beginning to realize we’re eligible young women.”
The love and business affairs—or, rather, the business and love affairs—of eligible young women provide plenty of fodder for Baker’s topical 1917 comedy, which just opened at Theatre Row courtesy of excavation specialists Mint Theater (the company also produced Baker’s Chains in 2022). A husband, it turns out, is not priority for these smart, well-dressed women. They daydream of a larger storefront, more square footage, and a bigger workroom.
In other words, it’s a smart business move for Kate to accept Pillatt’s proposal. The trouble starts when she meets—and becomes weirdly fascinated with—her fiancé-to-be’s friend Lawrence Fawcett (Joshua Echebiri), an extremely awkward gent who has no interest whatsoever in shopkeeping. His family ran a rather lucrative corset business, but he’s passionate about something far less profitable: dyes—orange in particular. “Do you mean then only to do work that you like?” Kate asks. (It echoes a line from Chains: “You don’t mean to suggest, I hope, that we ought to like our work, do you?”)
Directed by Jackson Grace Gay, this Partnership simply doesn’t meet the Mint’s usual high standards. (And I’m not talking about the blatantly obvious stick-on mustache. Although…) It boils down to a glaring lack of chemistry between Haider and Echebiri. And Echebiri’s Fawcett never seems excited by anything, not even his supposedly prized springtime miles-long walks and hillside excursions. (He’s the only character in the play who believes in work-life balance.) So when Kate starts cutting work, forgetting appointments, and prioritizing pleasure over business—taking a mid-morning boat trip instead of doing a fitting with the uppity but influential Lady Smith-Carr-Smith (Christiane Noll, looking splendid in Kindall Almond’s over-the-top frocks)—we can’t help but wonder why? What does she see in him that makes it worth risking her reputation as a businesswoman? “If I choose to lose my clients that is my affair,” Kate shrugs. Maisie is incredulous, and she’s not the only one. Snap out of it, girl!
And Kate seems to completely miss this beige flag: Fawcett refers to her shop as her “little show.” As if businesswoman is simply a part she’s playing, and her entire enterprise is a lark. That doesn’t bode well for a partnership in any sense of the word.
Partnership opened Oct. 19, 2023, at Theatre Row and runs through Nov. 12. Tickets and information: minttheater.org
