Dark Comedy in Milwaukee Chamber’s ‘Sweetest Swing in Baseball’

Theater, like any artform, is a matter of context. Mary MacDonald Kerr is a great local actress, soplacing her on the stage in a prominent role is always a good idea. Placing heron the stage as a struggling artist in a large city is a particularly goodidea, especially in the context of a Milwaukee Chamber Theatre productionstaged in the Broadway Theatre Center,ensconced as it is in a neighborhood buzzing with activity from art galleriesand the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design.

Rebecca Gilman’s The Sweetest Swing in Baseball is adecidedly dark comedy about Dana, a talented, witty, charismatic artist(appropriately played by Kerr) who winds up in a psych ward after a notably badgallery show. The reason she’s committed to a psych ward? After the bad show,she tried to commit suicide. (This is a comedy, and it’s actually quite funny.)

Things get a little oddwhen Dana realizes that her health insurance will only allow her to stay in thehospital for a very brief time. After all, according to the insurance, hersuicide attempt doesn’t measure up to the mental illnesses of her fellowpatients at the ward. One of them had been stalking a CNN news anchor (that’s Gary, played by PeterReeves) and another is a recovering alcoholic (Michael, played by the dashingNicholas Harazin). With her time at the ward running out, Dana decides to fakea mental illness.

Considering the largemenu of possible disorders listed in the DSM-IV that would get one a longerstay, Dana’s feigned psychosis is an odd choice. She decides to convince mentalhealth professionals that she thinks she’s Major League Baseball star DarrylStrawberry. Given that Dana knows little of the 6-foot-6-inch baseball legend,Gilman’s sense of the absurd goes a long way. The script has her feigning thedelusion without imitating Strawberry. Kerr’s talent should cover a great dealof ground with her typically bright and sympathetic stage presence. WithHarazin, Reeves, Laura Gray and Linda Stephens rounding out the cast, thisshould be a fun end to Milwaukee Chamber Theatre’s 2009-2010 season.

Milwaukee ChamberTheatre’s production of The SweetestSwing in Baseball runs April 15 through May 2 at the Broadway Theatre Center.