Review: “Breitwisch Farm”

In this complex and timely play, personal meets political as the struggling American middle-class is seen through the life on one farm.   

Breitwisch Farm by Jeremy J. Kamps is ambitiously monumental in its scope. The play comments on issues of immigration, racism, local politics, global peacemaking, fracking and organic farming, to name just a few. A macrocosm in a microcosm, this story about a family running a vegetable farm in Wisconsin attempts the daring task of showing the reason Trump was elected.      

Will Manning and Danaya Esperanza, in Breitwisch Farm. Photo by by William Edward Marsh.

An homage to Cherry Orchard, Breitwisch Farm borrows the premise from Chekhov’s play: a family is about to lose their rural land because of debt, but the inhabitants are not in a rush to act upon it. Indulging in vices and self-pity, holding onto the past, or fantasizing about the future, they refuse to live in the moment. Only this time it is not the Russian aristocrats that are threatened to vanish, but the American middle class. The parallels between a Russian province of 1903 and Wisconsin of 2011 only enrich this absolutely original, feisty, and new American play.    

Webster (Joe Tapper) returns from his peacemaking assignment in Africa to the family farm on the outskirts of Goose Creek. During the years of his absence the place and its inhabitants have changed. The matriarch of the family (existing only offstage) is not well and the land is put up for foreclosure. The farm is mainly run by two field hands, Zai (Danaya Esperanza), a woman of Tanzanian decent adopted to the American family as a kid, and Dolores (Maria Peyramaure), an illegal immigrant from Mexico. The bitter irony is that they are the most invested in the farm and can’t imagine a future without it.

Characters like Dolores and her son Oscar (Alejandro Rodriguez), a rising school football star and a Dreamer, are not often seen in theater. Trump’s presidency made these characters bleed with sorrow. Both Peyramaure and Rodriguez give a wonderful performance, making us reflect on cultural heritage as both a source of strength and shame. On a minor note, both actors should watch their volume when yelling, especially in this tight space.                  

The family members of Web’s credit-card-addicted sister, Leena (Katie Hartke), and her anxious teenage daughter, Bree (Katie Wieland), focus mainly on their personal and immediate needs. Yet both Hartke and Wieland portray such compelling characters that we root for them and feel their pain. Along with Leena’s ex-husband and redneck Randy (Will Manning), they create a nuclear family that is both disturbing yet heart warming at times. Their obsession with the Packers and the Super Bowl is endearing, making the opening of the second act one of the most memorable scenes.  

The cast of charracters is completed with the conservative Feucht (Charlie Murphy), the principal of the local high school. This seemingly well-meaning and endearingly shy man ends up causing a lot of trouble for the family, with which he is bonded in multiple ways.

The entire ensemble of the Esperance Theater Company, directed by Ryan Quinn, is simply incredible. The ease with which the members of the cast connect, and the nuanced portrayal of each of the characters, charges this family saga with electrifying truth. The set design by Alexander Woodward cleverly takes an approach opposite to realism by avoiding crowding the tiny space with heavy scenery pieces. The lighting design by Leslie Smith involves a lot of varied, practical lights, giving the everyday objects an almost magical quality.

The household items, taken from a large pile in the back of the stage, serve as props, often in a poetic and absurdist manner; the strips of photographic film are kindling and the newspapers are lettuce. Sometimes this allows for clever transitions between scenes: pillows that served as firewood become a kneeling bench in a church and the white sheet that was a frozen pond becomes the bedding for a couple of lovers.     

The tight space of the freshly opened Town Stages provides intimacy with the audience but presents its own challenges. No matter which of the three sides of the audience you will end up sitting, an obstructed view of some scenes is inevitable. I am usually very forgiving of this since you cannot see every side of a conflict in real life. But in Breitwisch Farm there were crucial scenes in which I couldn’t see any of the actors well! The director, Ryan Quinn, tried his best to change the axis of the action multiple times throughout the scene and make actors move, but the staging clearly requires further polishing. The imperfections of it, however, don’t obscure the overall quality of this very timely play.

_________

Breitwisch Farm plays at Town Stages, 221 W Broadway, through March 16th, 2018. The running time is 2 hours 10 minutes with one intermission. Tickets are $30 and are available at esperancetheatercompany.org. The remaining performances are: Friday 3/9, Monday 3/12, Tuesday 3/13 and Friday 3/16, all at 7:30.

Breitwisch Farm is by Jeremy J. Kamps. Directed by Ryan Quinn. It is produced by Esperance Theater Company. Set Design by Alexander Woodward. Lighting Design by Leslie Smith. Costume Design by Kaitlyn McDonald. Sound Deign is by William Neal. Stage management by Emily C Rolston, Kelsy Durkin, and Jenny Plackemeier.

The cast is Danaya Esperanza, Katie Hartke, Will Manning, Charlie Murphy, Maria Peyramaure, Alejandro Rodriguez, Joe Tapper, and Katie Wieland.