CurtainUp
CurtainUp
The Internet Theater Magazine of Reviews, Features, Annotated Listings
HOME PAGE

SITE GUIDE

SEARCH


REVIEWS

REVIEW ARCHIVES

ADVERTISING AT CURTAINUP

FEATURES

NEWS
Etcetera and
Short Term Listings


LISTINGS
Broadway
Off-Broadway

NYC Restaurants

BOOKS and CDs

OTHER PLACES
Berkshires
London
California
New Jersey
DC
Philadelphia
Elsewhere

QUOTES

TKTS

PLAYWRIGHTS' ALBUMS

LETTERS TO EDITOR

FILM

LINKS

MISCELLANEOUS
Free Updates
Masthead
A CurtainUp Berkshire Review
The Amish Project

What happens to a person when You live in a world where you can't believe in anything, and the things you don't want to believe are actually true?— Carol Stuckey
Allison McLemore (Photo: Rick Teller)
Jessica Dickey's The Amish Project is a compelling work and Chester Theatre Company in Chester, Massachusetts has created a riveting production directed by Daniel Elihu Kramer.

Dickey's seven character play was inspired by the real-life hostage taking of young Amish school girls in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania in October 2006. Five girls were murdered and the gunman, a local milk man then turned the gun on himself. Though Dickey has mined the incident for facts, she has fictionalized the characters, changed names and confessed to never having interviewed anyone. This is her imagined response to such a shocking incident and its aftermath.

Dickey creates the opportunity for a one-woman tour de force as seven disparate characters including two young Amish victims, a college professor, the gunman and his wife, a non-Amish local woman and a Hispanic grocery clerk shape shift through artistry of Allison McLemore's chameleon-like transformations. She imbues each character with an entirely different personality by employing a slight change in accent, attitude, stance or tone. In a split second she transforms so adeptly that not a beat is lost in the seamless narrative of the story.

The play's lyrical prose see-saws from flashes of humor to bitterness, anger and poignant confusion. Dickey studies the result of devastating loss in a divided community and on its victims. The central characters are joined by peripheral community members who, through their own narrative, are an integral part of a larger story. Somehow each one's life touches another in one surprising way or another.

McLemore's luminous and expressive face conveys each character's intensely personal relationship to the larger catastrophe, in a way that the audience is in thrall to the rapid fire morphing they are witness to. She compels us to listen, even to the murderer, or the hateful outsider with the same respectful attention as to Carol, the shocked wife, or Velda the adorable, enthusiastic Amish child. America, the pregnant sixteen-year-old grocery clerk's story is just as compelling and shows how each of our littler human dramas contribute to the great mystery of human existence. Bill North, the professor, serves as a vehicle of exposition and sanity with quiet authority.

Never has John Donne's "No man is an island. . ." resonated more than in the interweaving of these people's lives. Dickey's theme on the nature of forgiveness and reconciliation amidst the tragedy of violence and hatred is not only a theatrical but a soul-searching experience.

Kramer's effective staging and McLemore's emotional acrobatics are enhanced by Travis A. George's set design and James Mcnamara's lighting. The production values enrich the performance in this very profound exploration into the human psyche.

The Amish Project by Jessica Dickey
Directed by Daniel Elihu Kramer
Cast: Allison McLemore (Velda, Anna, Carol Stuckey, Bill North, Sherry Local, America, Eddie Stuckey)
Set Design: Travis A. George
Costume Design: Emily Dunn
Lighting Design: James McNamara
Sound Design: David Wigall
Stage Manager: Sarah E. Dion
Running Time: 75 minutes, no intermission
Chester Theatre Company, Chester town Hall, 15 Middlefield Rd., Cheater MA
From 8/08/14; opening 8/17/14; closing 8/24/14
Reviewed by Gloria Miller at 8/17/14 Press Opening
Slings & Arrows  cover of  new Blu-Ray cover
Slings & Arrows- view 1st episode free




Book Of Mormon MP4 Book of Mormon -CD
Our review of the show
amazon




©Copyright 2014, Elyse Sommer.
Information from this site may not be reproduced in print or online without specific permission from esommer@curtainup.com