Azuka Theatre and Simpatico Theatre present Chaz T. Martin’s Class C

Bliss, an agent for the Department of Homeland Security, is a cis and presumably straight white man, who has recently been designated a Class C citizen due to his infertility. In his attempt to flee persecution, he visits Allie, a car mechanic who lost her shop when women’s rights to own a business (among many other rights) were outlawed some years prior. A tense negotiation begins, at first almost entirely in subtext, as the two former enemies talk around the idea of helping each other. From there, the play proceeds through an explosive 75 minutes, asking haunting questions about the present, and the near future our actions may create.

Evoking a broken civilization

In this production, the cast of four is a highlight. Amanda Schoonover plays Allie, expertly dipping between anger and tenderness, determination and confusion. As Agent Bliss, David Pica makes an impassioned appearance as a man toiling with the loss of his own privileges, desperate for a way to make amends. AZ Espinoza appears as Warren, Allie’s partner and a former star of the organized resistance known as Central—in the role, Espinoza viscerally portrays his character’s inner and outer pain. Ciera Gardner provides much-needed levity as a medic representing Central, an organization teeming with its own moral complications.

The production’s simple, elegant design choices work together to create an atmosphere that feels both intimate and decayed. Scenic designer Sasha Jin Schwartz frames the narrow alley stage with drapes of fringed fabric, representing the fringes of society on which these characters dwell. Jillian Keys’s costumes emphasize the world’s disrepair through each character’s varying uniforms of earthy greens, clinical monochromes, and in one notable instance, bright pink. The lighting design by Bless evokes the relentless drip of time over the course of a single evening, cascading from the crisp amber of sunset into the cold blue of night, reinforcing the slow-burning tension. Elizabeth Atkinson crafts a sparse soundscape of birds, supposedly extinct animals—a wilderness indifferent to the machinations of this broken civilization.

Imagining a future that’s in our hands

Martin’s script unfolds as a bleak portrait of paranoia, regret, and dreams of redemption, against a backdrop of a fascist regime, whose characteristics will strike some as familiar. First penned in the weeks following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the script imagines its dystopia with an elegant procession of horrifying details, though the second half at times becomes weighted by its dense exposition and world-building. Still, Martin’s ability to stretch a scene’s tension remains palpable, and successfully elicits a great deal of pathos.

By play’s end, there are no easy answers to the questions it asks. How sincere are some of these characters being? Are their professions of change truthful, or bargaining chips to get what they want from each other? Are the events that unfold leading to their ultimate liberation, or are they looking to betray each other for their own gains?

The ambiguity, it seems, is the point. The audience is left to decide which lessons to take from the chaos, whom we ourselves can trust, and which actions we can take to steer our collective future toward something better than this.

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