While the current off-Broadway revival of The Cradle Will Rock is a relic of the past, Heidi Schreck’s unconventional stage piece, What the Constitution Means to Me, at the Helen Hayes on Broadway after two Off-Broadway runs earlier this season, is a living, breathing document, much like the constitution it addresses. Schreck’s unusual stage memoir recreates her journey as a 15-year-old making speeches on our sacred document cross-country to earn scholarship money. She also shares, as a grown woman in 2019, her view of the constitution.
A mix of solo-show and theatrical essay, the piece begins as the playwright-star recreates her speech as a teenager to American Legion posts. Under Oliver Butler’s sensitive direction and with the proper kitschy setting by Rachel Hauck, Schreck delivers a captivating double perspective, blending her past idealistic views and her present thoughts on how our constitution has not worked well for women and minorities. She adroitly weaves in heartbreaking details of her family’s history of spousal abuse, including her great-grandmother’s death at an early age from “melancholia” is a state institution.
Mike Iverson appears as a Legion moderator and then offers his own take on the subject as a gay man. The evening is capped with an exciting and lively debate between Schreck and a real-life high school student (the amazingly self-possessed Rosily Ciprian at the performance attended) on whether or not the constitution should be abolished and we start from scratch. Though the script may have been rehearsed, it feels as if the small company is saying the words and evoking these sentiments for the first time. The play is different, attention-grabbing, and as relevant as the latest headline, performed and written with a passion for justice, a must-see.
