Milwaukee Chamber Theatre – an intuitive perspective

March 24, 2026

Is This A Room: A Surprisingly Intense Drama From A Real Life Text

I have never attended a play where any of the dialogue was….REDACTED. Welcome to the 21st Century.

Left to Right: Rasell Holt, Jonathan Wainwright and Isabelle Muthiah. Photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre.

Is This A Room is an original concept put together by Tina Satter and the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre is fortunate to be able to bring this to Milwaukee. Satter has built this play on the actual transcript of the interrogation of whistleblower Reality Winner by the FBI on June 3, 2017. Winner was arrested for leaking an intelligence report related to Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections. She was later convicted and sentenced to over five years in prison. The fact that the transcript alone makes intense dramatic dialogue is amazing.

First, let’s consider the set, or in this case, lack of set for Is This A Room. Instead we have an industrial strength gray carpet mid-theater with the Chamber Theatre’s seating split with a portion on either side of our stage. Not quite theater in the round but not Chamber’s usual layout either. As we move into the action, we understand why this is important. The transcript/dialogue clearly indicates our location and describes how the action moves from one site to another. AND, as the cast thrusts and parries through their conversations, they intensify those moods and feelings with agitated pacing around the space/room. And there are times where director Brent Hazelton has the cast move about in obvious stalking or moves to make advantage in their physical relationship to the other characters. When many observers or critics talk about directors choreographing the action on stage, it tends to be more metaphor than fact, but in Is This A Room, Hazelton has choreographed an actual dance here. And Hazelton’s facility in crafting this text into an engaging play on stage is equally satisfying.

Left to right: Isabelle Muthiah, Jonathan Wainwright, and Rasell Holt. Photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre.

Isabelle Muthiah is Reality Leigh Winner. Muthiah is ingenious as Winner. Initially playing a naivety card, she is cool and coy and intentionally slow to understand what is going on until the FBI plays their cards. And even as events start going against her, Muthiah never loses her cool or her control and sometimes leads the agents down a tangential path. Jonathan Wainwright plays Special Agent Justin C. Garrick, the bad cop in our pair of special agents? Well, not the bad cop in a forceful threatening way, but the bad cop in asking most of the questions and always the most direct questions, and the holder of the facts at hand. Wainwright tries to project something of a wise fatherly figure, trying to put Winner at ease. And Special Agent R. Wallace Taylor is played by Rasell Holt. Holt’s Taylor shows more empathy for Winner and I guess, he would be considered the good cop. He asks questions, but not the direct type we get from Garrick, but follow up questions or clarification questions which do show his empathy.

Left to right: Jonathan Wainwright, Isabelle Muthiah, and Rasell Holt. Photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre.

And then there is the Unknown Male! Well, well not exactly unknown. While Garrick and Taylor are both plainclothes special agents, the Unknown Male is in full FBI regalia and armed to the teeth. And Unknown Male is played by one of my favorite actors, Mark Corkins. It was great to see him on a local stage again outside of his annual appearances in the Christmas Carol. Well, Corkins gives us an officer who is something of a doofus. Wandering around seemingly aimlessly, often unaware of his surroundings, generally unaware of those around him, constantly distracted, but absolutely sinister! And he gets to deliver the line that gives the play its name, Is This A Room?

Mark Corkins and Isabelle Muthiah. Photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre.

When working with a minimal set, other technical items become far more important. Like lighting: Jason Fassl is the Scenic & Lighting Designer here and the mood and direction on stage is clearly emphasized by Fassl’s lighting. And Stephanie K. Brownell’s costumes set us in the right place and atmosphere as well. The special agents and Winner are dressed in casual clothes which supports the initial casual conversations in the text. But as I said, Corkins is absolutely sinister in his role as an FBI agent and that is enhanced by Brownell’s custom FBI costume.

Foreground kneeling: Mark Corkins, behind him left to right, Rasell Holt. Isabelle Muthiah, and Jonathan Wainwright. Photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre.

Is This A Room continues through April 5, 2026 at the Broadway Theatre Center’s Studio Theatre. Run time: approximately 75 minutes with no intermissions.

Additional information and ticket info can be found here. When ordering tickets, please note the changes in seating for this play.

February 1, 2026

I Am My Own Wife. But You Are An Impossibility.

The first sentence in my title is the title of the play currently on stage at the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre. The second is a paraphrase from Doug, the alter ego of playwright Doug Wright, from one of his interactions with Charlotte von Mahlsdorf in the play. Charlotte is an open transvestite living in Germany. She is an impossibility because she survived the Nazis during the Second World War and later the Soviet occupation of East Germany. She was an antiquarian, portrayed as having a particular affinity for Victrolas and other late 19th and early 20th Century music systems and mechanical clocks. And according to Wright’s play, she kept a museum of her treasures and conducted detailed tours through the 28 rooms of her museum. The items were acquired through purchase and trades but much of it salvaged during WWII and the Cold War. The story revolves around interviews between the play’s fictional Charlotte and the fictional Doug…

Jonathan Riker. Photo courtesy of Milwaukee Chamber Theatre. Photographer: Michael Brosilow

Charlotte’s life wasn’t an easy one by any means. First an abusive father who meets an untimely end and of course the indignities that queer people and transvestites in general experience in the mid 20th Century. All of these instances are described in detail in conversation with Doug or acted out for our benefit, sometimes in great detail, by Riker/Charlotte. So there is a lot of different contexts here. From general and specific homophobia and its changing face over 50 years and of course the antisemitism of the Nazis. This is history that 21st Century society needs to remember and guard against forever.

There is but one actor in I Am My Own Wife. And that actor is Jonathan Riker who is credited at Charlotte et al. And that is because as written, Riker plays all of the roles. Not an easy task at any time but particularly difficult here given not only the varieties of gender but the varieties of nationality. Riker is an impeccable Charlotte, the graceful moves, the lilt in her German, and the intense feeling for the music and the music machines. Oh, and a delightful German accent that clearly makes the point but without being too strict for these Midwestern ears to understand. But with a droop of the shoulders or a turn of the head, Charlotte becomes Doug the playwright and interviewer, or Doug’s friend John who ‘discovers’ Charlotte and alerts Doug to her existence, or her lesbian Tante who helps Charlotte identify her sexuality and provides support, or any number of other friends or acquaintances who are keys to the story. Going from the feminine lilting German to a very deep masculine Texas drawl would be daunting for anyone, but particularly here in the midst of a half dozen other voices. But Riker nails it and has fun with it. There is an audible chuckle in the audience the first time he makes the transition. There’s also a sly look on Riker’s face!

Jonathan Riker. Photo courtesy of Milwaukee Chamber Theatre. Photographer: Michael Brosilow

Director Alexander Coddington has orchestrated a very simple but inviting dance on stage for telling this involved story. How he put this all together is simply staggering…so seemingly simple…but such elaborate story telling. And kudos to Coddington for keeping Riker so focused and on track through the two hours it takes to tell this story well.

There is a second star of the show, the set. Riker works in a spare shallow space with a dining room table, two chairs, and a cabinet. But behind is a painted backdrop that resembles a paneled dining room until the lights behind are turned on…and at one time we see an elaborate bar and back bar setting that Charlotte saved from a gay bar and later a mass collection of furnishings adorned with a milieu of mantel clocks and hall clocks or simply a sitting room. Quite s stunning achievement from the scenic staff of Sarah Hunt-Frank, Adam Hastings, and Maaz Ahmed.

I was a bit late to the dance on this one: I Am My Own Wife is at the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre through February 8, 2026. Ticket information is here!

And an answer to the unasked question stuck in the back of my head: there has been an understudy performance added on Tuesday February 3rd.

November 22, 2025

PSA: Milwaukee Chamber Theatre Extends Murder Girl Through December 13th!

If you missed my original review of Murder Girl, check it out here: MCT’s Murder Girl: Quintessential Up North Wisconsin: But Is It A Murder Mystery or A Comedy? And then be advised that it has been extended for a second time to December 13th. 2025.

Marty’s Supper Club. Photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre

Here’s their announcement:

One week after opening. Nineteen sold out shows.

Anyone else getting déjà vu?

Audiences are banging down the doors of Marty’s Supper Club. Just two weeks after we announced our MURDER GIRL extension, our reservation book was 98% full!

So we’re delighted to say… Marty’s is serving up one more round of Friday Night Fish Fry, Saturday Prime Rib Special, and White Zin Wednesday. That’s right:

More information from MCT and Tickets here!

EDITOR’S NOTE: the cast during the extended weeks will differ from the one in my review. The Charlottes will be played by Kelly Doherty and Jenny Wanasek during the extension.