Tag: Drama

Posted on

Renaissance Theaterworks Takes Us To Switzerland And

proves that not everyone there is, shall we say, neutral.

Patricia Highsmith was a popular 20th Century writer and novelist who is most famous for giving the world, The Talented Mr. Ripley. Despite her success as a novelist, Highsmith had a reputation for being rude and impolite and rather combative socially. A bit of a curmudgeon if you will, who has become something of a recluse in the Swiss Alps. And Joanna Murray-Smith has written Switzerland generously based on her late life with all of the angst, drama, and mystery worthy of a Ripley novel. Such elegant, dense, rich, and profound language needs to be experienced in the theater.

Highsmith the character says at one point, first, I don’t talk about writing and second, I don’t talk about writing. Which leaves me wondering where I stand…but Murray-Smith goes on to expound on writing in her dialogue. Not the how of writing but the why, the reason, the ability to create space, the sensibility to create an environment, the imagination to build a story, and finally the wherewithal to populate it all with enchanting characters. And Murray-Smith does so in spades with Switzerland.

Linda Reiter and Miles Blue in Renaissance Theaterworks’ production of “Switzerland” by Joanna Murray-Smith.  Photo by Ross Zentner. Photo courtesy of RTW.

There are only two actors here. Patricia Highsmith the novelist whom we visit in her Swiss home. An elegant spare home with the things that she values and loves. Highsmith is played by Linda Reiter but the evening I attended, understudy Laura T. Fisher brought real life to the role. And she has a visitor, Edward, played by Miles Blue, who has been sent by her American publisher to get her to sign a new contract for a hopefully in the works new Ripley novel.

Linda Reiter and Miles Blue in Renaissance Theaterworks’ production of “Switzerland” by Joanna Murray-Smith.  Photo by Ross Zentner. Photo courtesy of RTW.

It doesn’t always go well…as the two adversaries circle and parry and pace about the room looking for an opening and a place to stick the proverbial knife. Here is where we get the incredible wordplay…get distracted a moment and you will miss something deep and noteworthy. Blue is simply fluid in his movement, exhibiting the self-assuredness of his youth and position…and his confidence that he can flatter this older writer into signing the contract. But Fisher’s Highsmith is having none of that and questions his youth and his skill and his experience and insures him that she is not signing.

Here is where director Laura Gordon brings her own experience and vision to the front. It would seem to me that a two character play is very difficult to pull off effectively, visually, when the play relies so heavily on word play. But she keeps them moving around the set and keeps our attention on both actors while they discuss writing and life in the Swiss Alps and the changes in life in America and don’t you want to write a new even greater novel? Blue and Fisher stay on track, stay in character, and share the space. And of course there are threats…as Highsmith threatens to throw Edward out and when Edward threatens to leave. Both characters are willing to go to the precipice but neither is ready to take the leap. The are each too fascinated with the other to break off their engagement.

Linda Reiter in Renaissance Theaterworks’ production of “Switzerland” by Joanna Murray-Smith.  Photo by Ross Zentner. Photo courtesy of RTW.

Now don’t get me wrong, this isn’t just a word play. There is certainly a good sense of humor throughout but also more than a fair share of suspense. How could there not be when Highsmith’s occupation has led her to amass a collection of weapons proudly displayed over the mantle and an encyclopedic knowledge of poisons saucily recited over breakfast.

At the end of the first act they come to a truce of sorts and a wager of another sort. But that just gets us ready to experience the final surprise and conclusion…which I won’t bring to the page….again something you should experience. But it is a grand surprise and an elegant if troublesome ending but it is after all about the author of the Ripley novels!

Switzerland continues at Renaissance Theaterworks through November 9. 2025 at 255 SWater Street Milwaukee, WI. Ticket information here

Content Advisory: SWITZERLAND contains bigoted language that accurately reflects Patricia Highsmith’s troubling world view.

Linda Reiter in Renaissance Theaterworks’ production of “Switzerland” by Joanna Murray-Smith.  Photo by Ross Zentner. Photo courtesy of RTW.

One quibble: given Highsmith’s focus on everything in its place, the turntable should have been out for the first act and not introduced to the set at intermission. The Marina Abramović book could have lived somewhere else but still on view.

And personal aside. As a former record store manager and owner and LP collector I so wanted to go on stage flip through Highsmith’s record collection.

Extra Credit Reading: Playbill and Audience Guide

Posted on

Next Act Goes For The Heart and Then The Gut With Sanctuary City

Next Act Theatre didn’t hesitate a moment about starting their new season with a compelling and hard hitting drama. Yes, with a name like Sanctuary City, it does deal with two stories about two undocumented young adults whose paths cross in their adopted land. And they were brought to the United States as children so they really know no other culture or life style than America.

Now in the current sociopolitical environment, sanctuary city may invoke thoughts about safe haven but the 2006 version of Newark, where the play takes place, isn’t such a place. Instead, to me, the play supports the relationship built between our two protagonists, as sanctuary cities. I hope I can fill that idea in without giving too much of the story away. But, yes, much of the undercurrent of this story has to do with the struggles and fears and stresses experienced here, so in a very meaningful way it is of the day. But there are a few scenes and conversations that are more of their time, insects stuck in amber as it were. But we will all understand the angst that we see here.

King Hang, Ashley Oviedo. Photo by Michael Brosilow. Photo courtesy of Next Act Theatre.

We meet G, played with incredible grace and determination by Ashley Oviedo, when she climbs the fire escape to B’s bedroom to escape from her home situation. B is played by King Hang as a conflicted young man who isn’t sure which way to turn as his world is coming apart. So, here are our sanctuary moments. B physically shelters G in his home while G shelters B’s mind and confusion with her empathy and compassion. When we meet them, they are young adults still attending high school. And this scene is confusing at first because it seems to be repeating in an endless loop with slight shifts in the dialogue and differences in inflection. These resets are cleverly delimited by a click track, so you know when they restart. I don’t know who thought that click thing up but director Jake Penner put it to amazing use here. Eventually you realize that the story is actually in something of an endless loop. I don’t know how Oviedo and Hang keep track of the changes in what is nearly identical dialogue.

Ashley Oviedo, King Hang. Photo by Michael Brosilow. Photo courtesy of Next Act Theatre.

The issue? G is beaten by her step father and her mother is unable to do anything about it because they are undocumented. So B allows her to shelter in his home. B is conflicted because his mother is determined to return to their country of origin but leave B to his new life in America. G supports his efforts to stay and succeed. And this series is repeated and repeated until surprisingly, G’s mother achieves citizenship and G does as well as a minor, and then leaves her husband, and B’s mother actually does return home leaving him to fend for himself.

They both finish high school, but the original dynamic has been shattered. And G proposes to use her new found citizen status to protect B by getting married. And we encounter a wholly new repeated dialogue as G and B rehearse their responses to imagined immigration questions…and then the world changes again as G goes off to Boston on a college scholarship and B becomes a bartender in their home town. And although they keep in touch by phone their world changes…

King Hang, Ashley Oviedo. Photo by Michael Brosilow. Photo courtesy of Next Act Theatre

Ovieda is a force to be reckoned with…presenting a G angry over her mistreatment but able to focus on how to move forward instead of languish in despair. And her G is also sharp witted and quick to take advantage of situations and events that come her way. Hang presents a very resilient B although he isn’t aware of it. So he often exhibits his stress through layers of doubt and indecision.

After intermission, we find that B is still in what had been the family apartment and G shows up but they haven’t seen each other for over three years. I won’t provide any spoilers if I can help it, but we now have a third character, Henry, played as a very confident and maybe a bit smug law student by Joe Lino. He is a catalyst in the final scenes of the play. And no, the play doesn’t end well for any of the characters, but probably not in the way you are picturing. You need to experience it…and feel the carpets pulled out from under while sitting in the audience. And there are questions about what love is and who loves and how much, that are never quite answered. There is a whole lot packed into this little play.

Joe Lino. Photo by Michael Brosilow. Photo courtesy of Next Act Theatre.

Kudos to Hang, Oviedo, director Jake Penner, and the production staff for the subtle but effective aging of B and G as they leave for intermission as teens and return for the climax as 20 somethings. It is an incredible transformation.

Now a note on why our characters are G and B. Playwright Martyna Majok has left the casting in Sanctuary City rather open ended. In her script she notes G is female and B is male and they are both 17 to 21 (depending on the scene, my note). And “The countries of origin can suit the actors chosen. These characters have grown up within working class multicultural America.” As a result, no country is ever mentioned, only discussion on ‘going back’.

A final word from G: “I’m from here.”

Extra Credit Reading: The Audience Guide and the Playbill!

SANCTUARY CITY contains strong language, descriptions of emotional abuse and domestic violence and themes related to deportation and family separation. The play also includes moments of heightened emotional intensity.

Sanctuary City runs from now through October 5, 2025 and runs one hour and 30 minutes without intermission. Additional information and tickets here!

Posted on

American Players Present: William Inge’s Picnic!

Of course I knew that William Inge’s Picnic is a major milestone in American theater but that is all that I knew. I mean it has a Pulitzer. But I had never seen it performed, not even the movie, nor read it or studied it. So when APT announced they were featuring it this season, it was my go to play for the summer. I was more than ready for APT to provide that coming of age experience for me.

The SET! Photo courtesy of American Player Theatre. Photographer Dan Norman.

Before we get to the play, let’s talk about the first thing we encounter as we enter the seating bowl of the Hill Theatre. We see two modest homes, probably late 19th or early 20th Century middle American rural homes, modest, solid, and in need of a bit of TLC. They have adjacent yards where all of the visible action occurs the only fences separate the yards from the street because we have good neighbors! Scenic Designer Takeshi Kata has done an incredible job bringing to mind that era, that culture, that environment.

In her Director’s Notes, Brenda DeVita states: “William Inge, from Kansas, always felt to me like he was someone who lived in the town I grew up in in Iowa. It even felt as if we grew up at the same time, though he was born 50 years before me. I always wondered why. Maybe it’s because there are very few American playwrights who write about the Midwest – the small town, the “small people.” Regardless, he clearly understood the gifts that came along with this kind of life. But he never sugar-coated that life either—the abiding boredom of such places. The Midwest. The Flyover States. Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, they were decidedly NOT Illinois, or even Minnesota or Wisconsin.”

Well, I beg your pardon Brenda. This all feels so so familiar to me as well. Well, not 2025 me, but 1958 me, when Pewaukee WISCONSIN was just a rural backwater and not the bedroom suburb that it is today. And I bet others from Wisconsin of my vintage or who have more recently grown up in similar rural areas will feel that sense of boredom and nostalgia endemic to Picnic, just as much as I did, before I even sat down.

Just a brief background…quickly. The houses belong to Mrs. Potts who lives alone with and is the caregiver for her elderly mother, who is never seen but sometimes heard. And the other is the home of Mrs. Owens and her two daughters Madge and Millie. She also takes in lodgers and her current resident is a ‘old maid’ school teacher Rosemary Sydney. The other characters are friends and neighbors, many of whom I will talk about.

Rasell Holt and Dee Dee Batteast. Photo courtesy of American Player Theatre. Photographer Dan Norman.

Let’s start with one of my favorites here, Dee Dee Batteast, as Helen Potts. At some point in the play Millie exclaims that if she gets to heaven she expects that everyone she meets there will be as nice as Mrs. Potts. And that is exactly the person that Batteast brings to life on stage. Despite getting some bad breaks in her own life, she is the life of the backyard in many ways and helps and supports her friends and neighbors as well as being the long suffering caregiver for her mother. But she does have one tendency that her neighbors question: she occasionally takes in ‘strays’. And that is exactly what she has done as the play opens, taking in Hal Carter, and exchanging breakfast for his help with some household chores. There is a fair amount of humor around Hal’s initial presence and introductions as he’s a right hunka man and is working without his shirt, attracting the female gaze from the entire female cast at this point. But little do any of us know that he is the catalyst that will change everyone’s destiny.

Hal is played by Rasell Holt who clearly has the physique bona fides for the role as he totes trash barrels or leaps the picket fence…but also is a glib talker, a bit of braggart, and more intelligent than the apparent vagabond they all take him for. His appearance isn’t totally random after all. It appears he was at college on a football scholarship until he flunked out and was frat brother to Alan Seymour, who he is hoping can help him find work…not just any work…some how he hopes Seymour can help him skip a few rungs. Holt knows what he’s about here. He certainly can strut under that female gaze and can morph into the glib talker at any time and change his story and persona as needed dependent on his audience. And Holt can turn on the charm as the ladies’ man which starts the changes across our little universe.

Aline Tabor and Colin Covert. Photo courtesy of American Player Theatre. Photographer Dan Norman.

Colin Covert plays Alan Seymour as the cool college boy you’d expect in 1953 Kansas. Clean cut, conservative, well dressed, well placed and headed back to college soon. Apparently Hal’s only friend in the frat, he has his own stories to tell about Hal. Some real, some, we find out not so real, and a lot of issues left out of the conversation. Covert gives us a Seymour who plays it way too cool as he courts his steady, the prettiest girl in town, Madge.

And Madge is the prettiest girl in town and everyone says so. But feeding into the image, Alina Tabor knows how to play that game to her advantage. But she also exhibits a sense of self doubt as she wants something more, a recognition that she is more than a pretty face. And Tabor brings us that nagging bit of angst as she does want more and she’s not sure if the attentions of Seymour are her goal or if his hesitancy to commit is a red flag. And then there is Hal, who openly flirts with her and takes her to the picnic in a way, or not. And the Madge/Seymour/Carter world explodes.

Kelly Simmons and Alina Tabor. Photo courtesy of American Player Theatre. Photographer Dan Norman.

And Millie is the smart one, Madge’s younger sister. My favorite character here, because: Kelly Simmons plays Millie with such a boisterous enthusiasm you can’t help but focus on her. From sneaking cigarettes from her hidden coffee can stash to her boyish wardrobe, she is playing into being labelled the smart one. So Simmons has caught that bit of her quality but in her poses aside the main action at times you can see her growing sense that she wants to be an adult. And then Hal sets his eyes on Millie and Simmons brings out a new Millie who revels in the attention and then glows red with jealousy when Hal turns his attention to Madge. Probably for the first time in her life. It’s then that Millie realizes that she can be the smart one and a pretty one and Simmons turns that page as well!

Colleen Madden has a role that suits her fancy! She is Rosemary Sydney, the maiden school teacher. Madden presents us with a preening, yes I think preening is right, woman of a certain age who is proud that she is a single woman and school teacher. And she has a boy friend…well no, a friend who is a boy. But me thinks, that Rosemary doth protest too much. And that proves true, as Rosemary too falls under Hal’s charm, demands that Howard marry her. Madden is hilarious and outrageous in this scene! There may have been a bit of alcohol involved.

Colleen Madden and Triney Sandoval. Photo courtesy of American Player Theatre. Photographer Dan Norman.

And then there is the girls’ mother, Flo Owens, who Tracy Michelle Arnold plays as a subdued and resigned woman who wants nothing but a better life for her daughters. She sees that in Alan Seymour and openly pushes Madge in that direction. Arnold gives us the frustrations of a single mother who is struggling to provide a stable home and solid economic base for her family. And Arnold also shows us the love of a mother despite the distractions her daughters either face or present.

The Cast. Photo courtesy of American Player Theatre. Photographer Dan Norman.

Director Brenda DeVita has made a very quiet but very bold statement with the casting of Picnic. If you have enjoyed the photos that accompany this article, you will have noticed that Hal and Mrs. Potts are played by black actors. That isn’t an issue per se but given the history and culture of the United States, no matter what the level of our suspension of disbelief, it does subconsciously put a different twist to some of the dialogue. But DeVita has done an amazing job casting and directing this play. The characters ring true and believable and the story telling is succinct and memorable.

I loved this!

More about William Inge’s Picnic at American Players Theatre including ticket info.

Picnic is being presented in the Hill Theatre in repertory so the dates are spread out through the summer and early fall. The last show is Saturday September 13, 2025

Spoiler Alert: We don’t get invited to the picnic!