Photo by Alex Clark
Next Act Theatre plays host to a tender portrayal of a family of emotionally fractured people with Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter. Directed by Deborah Staples, Julie Marie Myatt’s script is a deliciously moody comedic shuffle across a small stage. Chelsea D. Harrison dances with shadows and subtlety in her portrayal of the title character. Jenny Sutter is a Marine who has returned from Iraq. Not ready to return home to her children, she follows a chatty stranger to a makeshift community of people living along the quiet fringes of society.
The chatty stranger happens to be a woman named Louise, played by Tami Workentin in an alarmingly charming performance. As Jenny has a tendency to be very quiet, we find out much about her through her reactions to Louise. This dynamic means that Workentin’s performance needs to be emotionally intricate enough to render her own personality while also being big enough to fill all of the silence in the relationship between her and Jenny. Workentin delivers a casually graceful mixture of strength and vulnerability and emotional complexity to the stage. It’s a deeply engrossing and entertaining performance.
The men in the ensemble are nearly as inert as Jenny is at the beginning of the story. John Kishline is serene and thoughtful as community guru, Buddy. Ryan Schabach unswervingly plays a gruff man named Donald who speaks few words. Schabach brings this energy to the stage without compromising a sense of compassion that keeps the character endearing.
The empty space onstage lingers with many silent moments in a production that isn’t afraid to allow moments the room they need to breathe.
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Through Oct. 12 at Next Act Theatre, 255 S. Water St. For tickets, call 414-278-0765 or visit nextact.org.
