Daily Archives: October 2, 2011
The Amish Project at American Theatre Co.
By Devlyn Camp
Sadieh Rifai leads the one-woman show The Amish Project as seven different characters.
She enters in a side door, the outside light streaming ac
ross the blackened stage. She slides her apron on, ties her bonnet, and sets to work on the floor with a large piece of chalk. She’s a little girl drawing and explain her friends and family, the soon-to-be-traumatized victims of a non-fictional schoolhouse shooting from which the play is based. Her chalk childhood is juxtaposed against other characters’ adult issues.
Rifai changes characters so quickly and fluidly with assistance only from beautiful lighting changes. Her monologues are powerful and touching, even rather funny at parts. Various perspectives on the shooting that killed five girls open problems to Amish families that seem to wonder if secluding themselves could ever actually help avoid problems. The characters battle each other over their opinions of how to feel about the man that followed his urges, but also murdered the Amish girls.
Creepy and twisted, yet somehow spiritual, American Theatre Company’s production gets intellectual gears turning.
THE AMISH PROJECT
American Theatre Company
Now through October 23rd
Tickets $35, available at www.atcweb.org
Contact critic at devlynmc@yahoo.com
Burying Miss America at New Leaf Theatre
By Devlyn Camp
A world premiere, Burying Miss America is a one-act play about two siblings who attend the funeral of their mother, Nebraska’s Miss America.
The show is not about theatrics. In fact, it’s quite simple. The only lighting cue is at the top of the show when gorgeous lights brighten in the windows behind the casket. The rest of the set, the theater, is a normal funeral setting. The audience is seated around the sides of the room. I actually thought I had stumbled into a real funeral when entering the theater. The simple setting allows the play to focus on the story.
The beauty queen’s children are very plain, normal people. Her son, Boxer, is a trumpet player living in New York City, and her daughter, Jean, still lives in Nebraska raising her children. Their conversation examines their relationship with each other and with their mother, who may not have been the kindest woman when out of the spotlight. Boxer has returned home for the first time in a while to settle the will, but realizes he has other unsettled problems with his sister. Going home can be an experience that lifts a weight off one’s back, but can also open forgotten emotions.
New Leaf’s newest production is well written and well acted, and a recommended show to catch when you’re down in Lincoln Park.
BURYING MISS AMERICA
New Leaf Theatre
Now through October 29th
Tickets $15-25, available by calling (773) 980-6391
or at newleaftheatre.org
Contact critic at devlynmc@yahoo.com
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