Renaissance Theaterworks
Renaissance Theaterworks opens its season with the Midwest premiere of Alex Webb’s Civil War love story, Amelia. The company notes that the “message of each play [this season] will be as unique as the person watching it,” and this element of singular rapport was poignantly clear in their first offering.
Directed by Laura Gordon, the play focuses on newlyweds Amelia (Cassandra Bissell) and Ethan (Reese Madigan) whose profound connection is immediately put to the test when he volunteers for the Union army. Two years later, when his letters stop arriving, she decides to follow him south to answer the “I love you” he left hanging in the air the day he departed.
Jason Fassl’s set and lighting, and Rachel Laritz’s costumes are understated and adaptable, aptly evoking the period without diverting attention from the characters.
Amelia’s journey takes her through the hellish waste of post-battle Gettysburg and to a notorious prison camp. She meets a host of characters, all played by Madigan, whose variety and distinctness of voice and mannerism are a marvel to behold. Bissell’s performance is earnest and dynamic. In a memorable scene, Amelia receives aid from a slave named Samuel. After the two appraise each other, realize they wouldn’t normally work together but decide to anyway, he says, “Now we know what we ain’t, we better get outa here before anyone sees what we is.”
This idea is central. Although the cruelty of war is most apparent in its treatment of people as interchangeable, disposable things, transcendence and survival are based entirely on individual will and affection. Individuality is also a danger. A woman alone in the war-torn South, forever in peril, Amelia’s defining courage and resolve push her onward.
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This is not a soaring romance under difficult circumstances. It is realism set in a time when reality was hell, and the pathos has purpose. In darkest times, the highpoints of human character become all that keep us moving.
Through Nov. 9 at Broadway Theatre Center, 158 N. Broadway. On closing day, Renaissance will present two readings of the show by women veterans in partnership with the Woman Warrior Project. For tickets, call 414-291-7800 or click here.
