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Although based on real events, “7 Minutes” produced by Water well with Working Theateris a hopeful fantasy piece. It envisions a room full of people in deep disagreement. Despite their differences in attitude and background, these people respectfully listen to each other’s arguments. In our increasingly partisan society, “7 Minutes” offers a portrait of representative democracy – functional, pristine. Can you believe this?
It was written by the Italian playwright Stefano Massini. “The Lehman Trilogy”) and translated by Francesca Spedalieri, this American premiere is set at HERE, Penrose Mills, a fictional Connecticut textile mill. New owners backed by foreign investors took over. As the game begins, 10 members of the workers’ board, made up of all women and non-binary workers, have gathered in the break room awaiting news of the new owners’ requests. (The break room – fluorescents and stained panels on top, linoleum on the bottom – was designed by You-Shin Chen and lit by Hao Bai, who also provided the ominous sound design.)
After a few tense minutes, Linda (Ebony Marshall-Oliver), the spokesperson and 11th member of the committee, arrived. The factory will not close, he tells his colleagues. Benefits and salaries will remain constant. But the owners wanted a small concession: a seven-minute reduction in employee break times. And they have to make a decision in a little over an hour, which means the 90-minute game discussion unfolds in real time.
“7 Minutes” is smart. It’s also cold, as if someone turned the air conditioner all the way up. And while the documentary framework lends it validity, it may sound familiar. The dramatic premise of the play, which transforms the conflict between management and workers into conflict between worker and worker, goes back as far as Clifford Odets’ “Waiting for Lefty” (a drama that moved unionized taxi drivers so much that on the opening night the audience joined the cast in calls). strike) and as close as Lynn Nottage’s “Sweat” and Dominique Morisseau “Skeleton crew.”
At first, Linda’s was just a no vote. But as the game progresses, generational frictions emerge, along with differences in ethnicity and wage rates, and many other workers take his side. (This makes a work like Reginald Rose’s teleplay “Twelve Angry Men” a precursor.) Individually, the compromise isn’t onerous. The seven minutes lost don’t really matter in itself, and certainly not when compared to the possibility of layoffs or lockouts. But the minutes take on a symbolic value almost immediately: Why should workers reward their new owners? How does a yes vote set a precedent?
As a result, voting becomes a referendum on freedom, an often abstract concept and the safety of a fixed salary.
Linda’s fiercest rival Danielle (Danielle Davenport) must stay on health insurance. It has no time for abstraction. “Would you like to start a fight because of your doubts?” she asks.
Linda said, “Do you want to keep the peace at all costs because of your fears?” he replies.
Massini has a clear interest in capitalist systems and how these systems can deform individuals and societies. In this production directed by Mei Ann Teo, the characters are constantly debated and ideas dominate. This is partly a translation issue. The main conflict the game is based on took place in a French factory. Massini transported him to Italy. Waterwell’s version translates it to Connecticut, but without a real sense of place or situation. It could be anywhere.
The language is oddly formal (“All die”, “If 10 thinks red, 11 must blush”) and is largely undifferentiated among characters given only the thinnest rind in the background. Stronger actors, including Marshall-Oliver and Davenport, can fill these gaps, but weaker ones struggle to uncover the women and non-binary workers behind the words.
This makes “7 Minutes” a game that makes you think. But unlike Nottage’s and Morisseau’s works, which constantly ground the political within the individual, it never makes you feel. Insensitive democracy? This too is a fantasy.
7 Minutes
by April 10 at HERE, Manhattan; here.org. Working time: 1 hour 30 minutes.
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