Photo by Michael Brosilow
The Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s premiere performance of Joanna Murray-Smith’s American Song is a 90-minute one-man one-act melodrama on a current social concern. It will stimulate much discussion, but inevitably falls short of creating much drama despite a carefully wrought, beautifully understated performance by James DeVita.
The story deals with a young father who discovers that his well-adjusted, much-loved teenage son has just killed some 20 children in a schoolroom massacre before shooting himself. Andy, the father, spends the better part of the first hour reminiscing about his happy family life while building a stone wall, each slab reminding him of a slaughtered child. Murray-Smith’s dialogue meanders beautifully but is sorely in need of a main focus. It fails to establish an antecedent for this inexplicable, horrendous act or to address the truism that certain acts defy analysis; but it is the duty of the playwright to create connective tissue between past and present.
The horrendous subject matter alone is not enough and is not addressed until the last half hour. We are told that teenagers can be inexplicable pockets of secrecy and that the world is not about “America singing” as Walt Whitman once wrote. The unique aspect of so horrendous a crime can only raise self-doubt between the parents. Was this stirring in their DNA?
Unfortunately, the play lacks the depth to address the unknowable and little attempt is made at some form of metaphor. Yet the play is easy to watch with the added suspense of waiting for the final resolution for those who have only glanced at the program notes. Simple melodrama cannot suffice, and the beautifully poised dialogue eventually leaves the audience aesthetically unsatisfied. More’s the pity since the play has all the earmarks of a sincere, sensitively rendered social statement.
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Through April 10 at the Quadracci Powerhouse Theatre, 108 E. Wells St. For tickets call 414-224-9490 or visit milwaukeerep.com.
