Photo Courtesy of Outskirts Theatre
In 2006, in a Pennsylvanian village, a man shot eight Amish girls ages 6 to 13, killing five. Jessica Dickey’s The Amish Project revisits the event and focuses on the response of the Amish community, which was to forgive the killer and his family. The play, a one-woman performance starring Abbi Hess, is presented by Outskirts Theatre Company at the Waukesha Civic Theatre.
With nothing but a chair, a desk and a little doll, Abbi Hess brings six characters to life: two young victims, the gunman, the widow he left behind, a professor of Amish culture and an unrelated bystander. The show is a mosaic of snippets, short scenes occurring both before and after the shooting—we can see Velda, 6 years old, playing before the incident, immediately followed by a mournful fundraiser for the victims. From the very beginning, although we see joyous scenes and innocent children, we are made aware this story will end tragically.
The script is deeply sympathetic towards the Amish, teaching about the history, culture, beliefs and members of their community with respect and consideration. Velda, boisterous and enthusiastic about everything, does a lot to humanize the typically austere world of the Amish.
Abbi Hess’ skills on stage are the greatest strength of the show; moving scene to scene, character to character seamlessly. She truly inhabits the stage, ending the one-hour show in a surge of lyricism and poetry.
