The State of Wisconsin has been enjoying something of a Renaissance on Wisconsin stages these past few seasons. And Next Act’s presentation is no exception as Pulitzer Prize nominated playwright Rebecca Gilman sets Swing State in Wisconsin’s Driftless Area, in the imaginary Cardiff Township. No don’t let that idyllic pastoral setting fool you into thinking that this is a delicate play…Swing State is anything but a delicate play. Swing State is a full in your face, touching your heart, and surprising your brain human drama. But it is a Wisconsin Premiere!
We are going to meet four very different and unique characters who live in a very small town. The kind of Wisconsin small town where you don’t lock your doors. Where everyone knows everyone else, and everyone knows everyone else’s business, or at least everyone knows all of the gossip about everyone else’s business. A simple place where people can live simple and fulfilling lives. A reminiscence of the American Dream of a hundred years ago? Well, maybe not. Each of our characters has a secret…some of them are seriously hurting inside…one has demons that he is constantly struggling against…and they are all wondering what exactly are they supposed to do?
Peg Smith is living alone in her quaint farm home on a bit of prairie that she and her late husband discovered during one of their trips through the area. She is pondering her legacy and trying to determine how to protect the pristine prairie that she and her husband lovingly nurtured and tended for decades. It was their happy place. But she is deeply mourning his loss and that is certainly taking a toll on her emotions. She is also mourning the changes that she is seeing in their prairie. Drought is reducing the number of wild flowers that are returning and causing the surviving plants to produce fewer seeds. She notices that the frogs have gone from the pond and certain sparrows are in decline as is the neighborhood bat population. She brings these topics into conversation any number of times during the play and this bit of subtext draws the different personalities together, although not always thinking about it in the same way. But this subplot, if you are like me and grew up in a similar rural environment, or if you adopted that lifestyle later, or immerse yourself into it on occasion now, this subplot will pull you in hard and remind you of your connection to the land and to its flora and fauna. Tami Workentin brings us a Peg who is solid and thoughtful and somewhat direct. But we also feel the hurt and despair of mourning in her Peg as well…and Peg’s unity with her prairie and the people of her little community. Not quite a mother earth figure but leaning that way…
Peg’s next door neighbor is a young man named Ryan. Since Ryan lives next door he is about the only person that Peg sees on a regular basis since the death of her husband. Like their prairie, it seems that Peg and her husband also nurtured and supported Ryan as a youth and later when he ran into some trouble. The Ryan we know is played by Jack Lancaster, as an always angry man who has recently returned home from a short stint in prison. Angry when he has a right to be, angry even in generally benign situations, and just just angry. Lancaster gives us a classic example of someone suffering PTSD as a result of his life trials. But Lancaster also shows us a thoughtful and concerned Ryan who is very aware and observant of the things going on around him. And Lancaster brings out a gentler side when Ryan is talking to Peg about the prairie and later when talking with Dani about his concerns about Peg and his own emotional investment in the prairie.
Kelli Strickland is a complete badass as Sheriff Kris Callahan Wisnefski. On the surface Strickland is a forceful by the book sheriff who proclaims her duty to serve and protect her constituents…even those who didn’t vote for her. But she too has suffered a loss and is in mourning and she too is trying to push past it by building her legacy as a no nonsense law enforcement officer. Strickland has developed the voice, the stagger, and the aggressive presence that this portrayal requires. But there are cracks once in a while.
And her niece, Deputy Dani Wisnefski is played by Milwaukee favorite Elyse Edelman. Edelman’s Dani is looking for a purpose and thinks that she has finally found it under Sheriff Kris’ tutelage. But she exhibits a bit too much empathy at times…but that will make her a great deputy when she learns to temper the empathy against enforcing the law. She makes people more comfortable that Sheriff Kris ever can. Edelman balances the tug of these two issues immaculately.
Next Stage Artistic Director Cody Estle directs Swing State and does an amazing job of identifying the essence of the characters and helping the actors inhabit them and then inserts them into the story accurately and precisely as the script demands. And Estle got some serious help from Scenic Designer Jeffrey D. Kmiec’s set design: a very warm worn in cabin/farm house living area of a certain age! Not exactly like any I’ve experienced but close enough that I would feel right at home. And the backdrop outside the windows of the hills and fields and forests just add a certain bit of nostalgia for a time past as well. Unfortunately there aren’t any young people in the cast so we never get to hear the screen door properly slammed.
Now the title Swing State would, in contemporary conversation, suggest a bit of political discourse about moving from one end of the spectrum to the other. It is a very subtle undercurrent here. The real story is how people struggle or cope with real life losses and disappointments no matter what their surroundings.
Swing State continues through March 8, 2026 at Next Act Theatre, located at 255 South Water Street in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The play runs about an hour and 45 minutes without intermission.
This is an adult play with adult subject matter and discussions about suicide. And it contains some violence.
Additional information and tickets can be found here.
Extra Credit Reading: Playbill! and Audience Guide.
Sounds like a couple of hours well spent.