Photo Via MilwaukeeChamberTheatre.org
Martin Zimmerman’s 'The Not-So-Accidental Conviction of Eleven Milwaukee “Anarchists”'
The past often offers clues to what a person or community will eventually become, yet one of Milwaukee’s most significant historical incidences remains unknown to many who grew up in the city.
On Nov. 24, 1917, a suspected bomb found next to a church in the Third Ward was delivered by a concerned citizen to the Milwaukee Police Department’s main station on Oneida St. Many of the officers on duty were skeptical about the package, which one described as “looking like a large lunch pail.” Those views changed when the bomb went off, killing nine of the officers and one civilian, a young woman who had come to the station to complain about her boyfriend. Although the police station was not the intended target, the bombing marked the largest loss of police lives in history at the time, a number that remained unsurpassed until the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.
Theories abound as to who the real bomber was and why the church—the Milwaukee Italian Evangelical Church, then known as St. Ann’s, next to which a social worker found the bomb stuffed in a narrow passageway—was the intended target. Ultimately, 11 Italian Americans involved in earlier political riots in the Bayview neighborhood were charged with the crime, but legendary lawyer Clarence Darrow got them acquitted.
The Milwaukee Chamber Theatre will explore the facts, fables, accusations and innuendoes surrounding the incident in its upcoming production of playwright Martín Zimmerman’s The Not-So-Accidental Conviction of Eleven Milwaukee “Anarchists.” The play, which opens April 26, will receive its world premiere performance at the Broadway Theatre Center’s Studio Theatre, which is located about five blocks from the church where the bomb was meant to detonate, according to director Brent Hazelton.
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Community Rooted
“I am very drawn to local stories and those that have roots in our community,” says Hazelton, a former history major who helped develop the play when it was first commissioned by the Milwaukee Rep a decade ago. “This is a play about what it means to be an American, who gets to be an American, and how we apply those rules to certain groups.”
At the time of the play Italian immigrants were the ones in question, and social issues and marches centered on poor working conditions, the specter of socialism, and the considerable influence of the Catholic Church, all of which fueled the marches and protests like the ones the original 11 suspects were part of just weeks before the bombing. Anarchy was a convenient catchall term at the time, Hazelton says, which is why the word Anarchists in the title has qualifying quotes around it.
The creative conceit by playwright Zimmerman, best known as a writer and editor for the two Netflix series Narcos and Ozark, is what Hazelton calls a “small theater approach.” Four characters, faced with telling the complex and nuanced story, debate what may be fact and what may be fiction, embodying the many characters who appear in the real-life drama, as well as possible scenarios that try and explain what really happened. And even though the event happened more than 100 years ago, there are definite overlaps with immigration issues today, the director says.
“The plot feels cyclical in terms of its rhetoric toward immigrants,” Hazelton explains. “The play has a lot to say about the dangers of religion and politics intersecting and colliding in times of war. Who is this country for, who gets to decide that, and on what terms do we allow that access to certain groups of people and not to other groups,” he adds.
And, yes, despite the gravity of the original event there are elements of humor to the play, but not without the caution and consideration the enduring themes presented.
“The old theatrical trope of ‘comedy is tragedy with the addition of time’ applies here, but Martin (Zimmerman) does a good job not letting us hide behind the comfortable remove of history,” Hazelton explains. “When you look at this scenario through the right-now lens, it’s not all that funny.”
Milwaukee Chamber Theatre’s production of Martin Zimmerman’s The Not-So-Accidental Conviction of Eleven Milwaukee “Anarchists” runs April 26 -- May 12 at the Broadway Theatre Center’s Studio Theatre, 158 N. Broadway. Tickets and info: milwaukeechambertheatre.org.
