Sometimes art is entertainment – an hour and a half of distraction, a brief respite from reality. Other times, art is a mirror of reality, asking us to look at hard truths about the world and ourselves. Swing State, by Pulitzer Prize finalist Rebecca Gilman, asks audiences to do the latter.
The play, which first opened in Chicago in 2022 before moving to Off-Broadway in New York, is in the midst of its Wisconsin premiere at Next Act Theatre. It follows recently widowed Peg (Tami Workentin), who’s dealing with the grief of losing her husband just before the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic. This grief is paralleled by the slow death of many of the wildlife, from bugs to bats, in her beloved 40-acre prairie backyard in the Driftless Area of Wisconsin.
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A mysterious theft alerts the local police (Elyse Edelman and Kelli Strickland) and threatens Peg’s closest friend, Ryan (Jack Lancaster), whom she’s been a mother figure to since he was 6. The situation shakes up their world and their relationship, and shines a light on his troubled past.
Stepping into the theater, I was immediately drawn in by the set: a familiar and welcoming Wisconsin home, complete with an old couch and dining room set and the backdrop of the beautiful prairie. It felt like peace, a direct contrast to what Peg felt throughout the events of the play.
The characters in this show are incredibly human – complex, raw and full of contradictions. I was struck by the care and tenderness with which Workentin portrayed Peg. Grief is a tangled thing, and she wove together Peg’s feelings with expert precision and thoughtfulness, while still showing the slivers of strength Peg felt through it all.
Similarly, Lancaster portrayed the complexities of Ryan’s intensity — from his love and care for Peg to his anxieties and fears — in a way that was honest and heart-wrenching. I was also grateful for the moments of levity he brought, from snarky comments (“Zucchini is a flavor sponge.”) to a beautiful monologue about a sparrow from Argentina, when the light glimmered in his eyes as he spoke.
Edelman and Strickland, too, brought their characters’ fears, hopes, and ultimately, humanity to life through incredible performances. Deputy Dani Wisnefski (Edelman) is lonely and searching for purpose after an ugly divorce, and her aunt, Sheriff Kris Callahan Wisnefski (Strickland) is a take-no-bullshit tough conservative woman who’s experiencing her own heartbreak.
Dani feels soft toward Peg and Ryan, where Kris is not interested in anything but justice — or at least that’s what she says, though it becomes clear it’s much more about the pain of losing her son to overdose. All of the characters have much more going on that they each see on the surface. We, as the audience, see it all, having access to empathy that they can’t quite always feel for each other.
By the climax of the show, there was hardly a person in my row of the audience who wasn’t leaning forward in their seat. And at the highest point of tension, you could hear a pin drop in the room.
I’m not going to lie: this was a hard show to watch. It tackles difficult topics like self-harm, suicidal ideation, drug abuse, police violence, alcoholism and grief. It also includes a fake gunshot, which I call out specifically for more sensitive viewers.
It’s emotional and unravels the messiness of human relationships, mental health and life as a whole. But as I walked away from the theater, it made me think about how deeply we all feel. It’s so easy to turn people we disagree with into caricatures. But they are hurting and hoping their way through life, too. This play reminds us of that.
Swing State runs through March 8 at Next Act Theatre.
