Simmering Below the Surface

Swing State – Goodman Theatre

Rebecca Gilman’s incredibly riveting new drama, currently enjoying its much lauded World Premiere at the Goodman Theatre, solidifies this writer as one of our finest American playwrights. And with her recent move to rural Wisconsin, Ms Gilman’s last three plays have, not so coincidentally, take place in America’s Dairyland. Like “Soups, Stews and Casseroles” and “Twilight Bowl,” both of which were produced during the pre-pandemic years by the Goodman Theatre, “Swing State” takes another deep look at the country’s heartland. Rebecca Gilman shows how today, through four of her most engrossing characters to date, an individual’s personal and political lives seem to be tightly woven together. In addition, Ms Gilman has used the Covid-19 quarantine as an important plot point in her new play.

Peg is a nurturing retired school counselor and a passionate conservationist. Enriched and spurred on by the efforts of Jim, her late, loving husband, Peg’s goal is to help prevent humanity from destroying this planet. She still continues her efforts to save the plant and animal life on the prairie land that runs through her rural Wisconsin property. 

This elderly environmentalist is like a surrogate mother by also caring for and supporting Ryan, her troubled young neighbor. In fact, throughout his formative years, she and Jim were more like parents to this boy than his real folks. Peg and Jim had known Ryan since he was very young. While he served a brutal four-year prison sentence for aggravated assault, the couple made some repairs on his house, paid the taxes it and inspired Ryan to hang on to hope. Following the boy’s release, the caring couple continued to help rehabilitate him; and, to this day, Peg still provides meals to Ryan, a willingness to listen and offers her own version of sound advice. However, when an old rifle and a trunk filled with antique garden tools disappears from the barn, bigoted Sheriff Kris, who’s always had it in for Ryan, immediately blames the young man. This unjust accusal leads to a new friendship and a series of unfortunate, tragic events.

Rebecca Gilman is known for writing about everyday people who, like each of us, are less than perfect. She uncovers these folks during particularly dark times when emotions are running high. But the playwright never preaches or offers black and white solutions about these issues; rather, she simply presents both sides of the coin. In Gilman’s plays the audience is sure to discover at least one character who represents their viewpoint and way of thinking. Peg represents one extreme, Sheriff Kris is the opposite end of the spectrum. Ryan and Dani, Kris’ niece who’s been recently hired as her deputy, and is Ryan’s peer, lie somewhere in between the two. The emotionally shattering conclusion to this drama’s conflict is softened a bit by the final scene, the denouement shared beautifully between Peg and Dani.

Robert Falls, former longtime Goodman artistic director, returns to direct one more play by Rebecca Gilman, a playwright he’s championed throughout the years. He guided “Blue Surge,” “Dollhouse,” “A True History of the Johnstown Flood” and “Luna Gale,” among many other notable productions. Here he’s brought his savvy and sensitivity to shape and bring to life Ms Gilman’s latest dramatic work. He’s enlisted only the finest from Chicago’s pool of talent to tell this important story. Staged upon Todd Rosenthal’s magnificently realistic and intricately detailed set design, Falls focuses on the subtle, the intricate trivialities and the minute moments of this wonderful, heartbreaking play.

As in every other production she’s appeared in, particularly the wonderful “Luna Gale,” “The Little Foxes” and her Jeff Award-winning tour de force performance in “The Year of Magical Thinking,” Mary Beth Fisher is once again unbelievable here as Peg. This accomplished actor knows precisely how to bring the humanity in every character she plays directly to her audience. Her portrayal of Peg is complex, yet honest and sincere, with every single movement and expression speaking volumes. In the initial scene the audience collectively gasps as she elicits our empathy for Peg’s wellbeing. As we later learn, this woman is trying to deal with an emotional wound that is slow to heal. But we also feel that Ms Fisher’s Peg is the kind of friend we’d all like to have in our lives.

Bubba Weiler is perfectly cast as Ryan. He’s created a character who is perceptive, emotionally raw and nuanced and totally mesmerizing. Weiler plays a young man haunted by loneliness and his own mistakes. Bubba Weiler is a talented young actor, with a resume of fine performances, who’s always in control of his feelings and physicality. He makes this tormented youth someone we truly care about, from the very first moment we meet him. 

Anne E. Thompson plays Dani with dignity and a certain degree of shyness. She’s taken on this job in an attempt to make a difference, both in her own life and the lives of the others with which she will deal. She’s the “good cop” to Kirsten Fitzgerald’s “bad cop.” As the antagonist of Ms Gilman’s latest story set in rural Wisconsin, Ms Fitzgerald brings the same strength and ferocity that she demonstrated in Goodman’s production of “Sweat” and, to a certain degree, in “Roe.” Of course, this gifted actor understands that the sheriff isn’t a villain, but is simply trying to enforce the law, as she understands it. She’s trying to come to the aid of one of the members of her community, but her intellect is colored by her emotions. We eventually learn that Sheriff Kris is harboring an unfounded prejudice concerning the death of her own son.

In this, Rebecca Gilman’s 17th play, and over twenty-five years of collaboration with the Goodman Theatre, she holds the honor of being the venue’s most produced playwright. While the title “Swing State” seems to imply a far more political drama, there are only elements of governmental influence in this drama. They lie simmering below the surface of the story. But this deeply complex one-act play, peopled with characters and ideas that gradually rise to the surface in a surprising climax, will leave audiences moved and saddened, only to be assuaged during the play’s gentler final moments.      

Highly Recommended

Reviewed by Colin Douglas

Presented October 7-November 13 by the Goodman Theatre, at the Owen Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn, Chicago. 

Tickets are available in person at the Goodman box office, by calling 312-443-3800 or by going to www.GoodmanTheatre.org.

Additional information about this and other area productions can be found by visiting www.theatreinchicago.com.