A Walk in the Woods, Lee Blessing’s insightful two-character play set during the end of the Cold War, tells the tale of a series of meetings between two diplomats, American and Russian. The play raises deep questions, “What can we do to heal the world?” “What is the value of human connection?” “How can we best bridge fundamental differences?” Blessing’s story has chilling resonance in today’s political climate. The cast features K. Lorrel Manning as John Honeyman, an American negotiator and Martin Van Treuren as Andrey Botvinnik, a career Russian diplomat.

The Barrow Group has done it again, this time delving into Lee Blessing’s brilliant two-hander, A Walk in the Woods, with a beautifully mounted, well-acted production that satisfies the senses and challenges the intellect. The idea presented by Blessing’s play, that an American and Russian diplomat would meet and attempt a disarmament treaty, is so prescient that it’s chilling. That The Barrow Group has produced an absolutely beautiful play (that needed to be revived) is not surprising to anyone who knows their work. Don’t miss this one, folks. It’s simply divine. In a wooded enclave in Switzerland during the cold war era in the early ’80s, we meet a Russian career diplomat named Andrey Botvinnik and John Honeyman, an earnest if somewhat stuffy American negotiator. They have been tasked with the unenviable position of negotiating an arms reduction, during the period after Ronald Reagan publicly asserted his position regarding the Soviet Union: “My idea of American policy toward the Soviet Union is simple, and some would say simplistic. It is this: We win and they lose. What do you think of that?” After the Mutual Assured Destruction policies of the ’60s and ’70s, this public attemp …Read more