Photo by Michael Brosilow.
Deborah Staples in Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s 2014/15 Stiemke Studio production of The Amish Project.
The Milwaukee Repertory Theater is currently staging Jessica Dickey’s The Amish Project, a striking fictional exploration of a real event that took place Oct. 2, 2006, in Nickel Mines, Penn. The foundation of the show is established with the first line, “Man enters Amish schoolhouse and opens fire,” though the act itself is not the sole item Dickey wants audiences to focus on. We are introduced to seven people in the aftermath of the schoolhouse shooting and are encouraged to take a deeper look into the philosophies by which we guide our lives—how we live, how we grieve, how we deal with tragedy and how we forgive.
Deborah Staples in Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s 2014/15 Stiemke Studio production of The Amish Project.
Photo by Michael Brosilow.
Deborah Staples is a powerhouse in this one-woman show, embracing the profound work with palpable energy and fine characterizations. She adeptly navigates the sparse set, a very simple and fitting design by Courtney O’Neill, with the focal point being a skeletal structure of a one-room Amish schoolhouse. Within the first five minutes, Staples is breaking the fourth wall and interacting with the audience as Velda, a 6-year-old Amish girl who is a sort of touchstone character throughout the show. The play immediately invites the audience to be part of the experience of learning and forgiveness. The audience is deeply affected by Dickey’s thought-provoking and contemplative dialogue.
There is a good amount of strong commentary in The Amish Project, ranging from the “truth” of news stations and store product labels to stereotyping and how we make assumptions about others. These topics are handled well and are worth more than just a passing thought, although Dickey’s biggest focus is forgiveness through the lens of the Amish. Many people didn’t understand how the Amish could forgive the shooter, how they could want to help the shooter’s wife. In one explanation, a professor and teacher of Amish history for more than 25 years, a character named Bill, shares that the Amish believe that there is no “why,” that there are some things that we can never truly understand, and this is how they are able to forgive as they do.
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Deborah Staples in Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s 2014/15 Stiemke Studio production of The Amish Project.
Photo by Michael Brosilow.
Dickey’s great script, delivered with respectful integrity by Staples, moves us to look within and ask ourselves about our own philosophies before we judge someone else’s. Dickey is not asking viewers to favor a specific viewpoint, as she represents many different sides of reaction to the shooting, but to simply consider our own reactions to tragedies and how they affect the people around us.
Through March 22 at the Stiemke Studio, 108 E. Wells St. For tickets, call 414-224-9490 or visit milwaukeerep.com.
