Mark H. Dold plays Harry, born Philip Brugglestein, for eighty minutes in Barrington Stage Company's tent in the first play of this pandemic season. Originally planned for the Boyd-Quinson mainstage after a major renovation of the theater, but moved outdoors as a result of Governor Baker's ban on indoor assemblage, this experience is unique as the Center Street, Pittsfield traffic adds to the delicate balance of  this presentation. Principally set in New York City the play takes Philip from an unfocused youngster to a career as a manipulative schemer who psychologically  and sexually torments a wealthy family into his thrall. There is passion involved and coldness as well. There is honest love caught in the mix as well as greed of the basest sort. Philip is tortured by his own plans and actions even as he glories in his successes as Harry. As David Case's script tells us, the man, or men, who are Harry are incapable of resolving their personal differences even as they live through the glorious successes Harry achieves.

Harry Clarke ultimately wins control of the situation and even his own personal conscience cannot sway the man from his mis-deeds. He is a unique entity. He is his own man, as they say in England where Harry is from (although Philip has never set eyes on the British island).

This is the story of the play. Who is Harry and where did he come from and why is he dominant? He is basically a likable guy except when he gets into those moods, those places, where he must dominate a situation.  He is charming, affable and even sweet as he begins to develop a relationship. Once he has another person's attention he twists himself into that other side of his personality where dominance and control must have their sway. When he develops an intimate friendship with Mark Schmidt and accompanies him to Newport, for a yachting weekend with his family aboard the "Jewish American Princess" for a cruise, everything alters. Harry has found a lifestyle he wants to possess.

Dold plays all four of the Schmidts as well as Harry (he takes on other characters as well) in a brightly charged dialogue and it is always clear which character holds center stage. The actor maneuvers the shifts with brilliance, deftly defining everybody vocally and sometimes also physically so there is never a moment of confusion. It is this ability that captures and holds the audience as much, if not more, as anything in the content of the play itself. The Newport sequence is the only part of the play that is easily lost in the performance setting as the traffic and the local passersby are intrusive here. When the monodrama is at home in the big city the noises outside the tent are most often easily absorbed into the sound design of the play. Even a local argument between a man and a woman, ultimately combined with the text of the play. Dold, himself, seemed not to be phased by the intrusive voice from Union Street. His Harry sailed over the battle as easily as he sailed off the coast of Rhode Island.