Milwaukee’s Next Act Theatre makes its season debut with Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter, a play about a female Marine who returns home from duty in Iraq. Not quite ready to reconnect with her mother and two young daughters, Jenny (in a nicely nuanced performance by newcomer Chelsea D. Harrison) interrupts her journey in a rundown bus station. Jenny struggles to find out who she has become in a play aimed at building an understanding of US veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
While sitting in the bus station, Jenny takes up an offer by an encouraging stranger, Louise (Tami Workentin). Although Louise is dressed a la bohemian bag lady (kudos to costume designer Dana Brzezinski), Jenny reluctantly agrees to go with her. Under Louise’s wing, Jenny joins the loose-knit community of Slab City, an off-the-grid community the middle of the California desert. Here she meets some of the other broken souls in this bleak wilderness. Many of them have taken on new identities. There’s Buddy, now an internet-ordained preacher (John Kishline), Cheryl, a hairdresser-turned-town therapist (Deborah Clifton), and Donald, an antisocial jewelry maker (Ryan Shabach).
The play is a small gem that has more impact than one would expect from 95 intermissionless minutes. One admires the courage of first-time director Deborah Staples to tackle such a complex play. She does a good job of steering the rest of the cast to revolve around Jenny, even when Jenny’s character is offstage.
Surprisingly, Jenny does not dominate the dialogue. Her anger, fear and confusion are often transmitted non-verbally. Jenny doesn’t really come out of her shell until near the play’s end when she confesses some of her worries to Buddy. Jenny has no idea how her children will accept a mother with only one leg, or who screams in nightmares that haunt her each evening.
Throughout the play, Jenny is attended to by the kindly Louise, who offers her half of a makeshift bed. When Jenny finally gets up the nerve to go home, even the ever-ebullient Louise admits that “she won’t miss hearing them (the nightmares).”
Although the play is focused solely on one wounded Marine, it contains enough substance to satisfy the theater company’s pledge to offer “thought-provoking” fare. Even if the play’s theme is one that might deter some theatergoers, it would be a shame to miss the work of three of Milwaukee’s best actors: John Kishline, Tami Workentin and (in a lesser role), Deborah Clifton. Each of them is capable of riveting an audience’s attention, and it is a rare treat to see them work together in Welcome Home.
One also must note the contribution of Ryan Schabach as Donald. His character is much closer in age to Jenny’s, and she finds a kindred spirit in his alienation. Like Jenny, he simply does not know how to fit in anymore. They have an artfully staged, back-and-forth exchange in which few words are spoken, but their actions transmit reams of information about these characters.
Finally, credit goes to the production’s set and lighting designers for effectively creating the elements of Slab City within the confines of a few old tires, a couple of spare platforms and a string of bottles that “decorate” a rusty iron railing. Depending on the time of day, they are illuminated by the desert’s bright glare or gentler colors of a sunset.
