Broadway in Chicago Presents WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME – Strobe Flicker in the Penumbra

Editor’s Note: The following is a review of an earlier production. This is now being performed through November 7, 2021.  Visit the Broadway in Chicago website for details.

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You’d never know that Maria Dizzia, the star of this almost one-woman show, is not the biographical pen that created this script.  When she doubles over and emits the Greek Tragedy howl that is her character’s birthright— a legacy of pain passed from great grandmother, to grandmother, to mother, to daughter— it seems to bellow from her DNA. That Dizzia once was a debater, as her character is, and that she is the daughter of an attorney, might be at play as well

Broadway in Chicago WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME
Maria Dizzia and Mike Iverson

In a shirt and yellow jacket a tad too tight that helps convey the awkwardness of teen years, Dizzia re-enacts playwright Heidi Schreck’s miles as a competitive High School debater, working to fund her college education through debate championships.  That 15-year old Schreck confesses to having difficulty putting her personal connection to the Constitution on display.  Instead, she concocts cockamamie comparisons of the Constitution to a coven’s cauldron.  In contrast, this play’s 15- year-old-one-minute-40’s-year-old-the-next Schreck projects where she is coming from with volcanic energy.  She reaches back into the story of the melancholia that is her heritage, and those of all women and others overlooked by the patriarchy that penned the US Constitution.

This year, the Centennial of the 19th Amendment that gave women the right to vote, is a grand time for this reminder, in this writer’s view.  But Schreck’s script goes much further, delving into quite nuanced terrain of whether and how the US Constitution weathers the test of time.  What is an arcane judicial debate over the the likes of the 9th Amendment and the perceived Right to Privacy underlying Roe v. Wade as we enter the theater, morphs into the second skin we wear as we depart. Who knew that the majority of the men on the Supreme Court who argued for Roe v. Wade were having trysts with fertile 20-somethings in the reach of their members underneath those judicial robes?  You too will now consider “penumbra” an everyday word in your vocabulary. Schreck’s pen describes it as that shadowy place where the US Constitution finds elasticity to accommodate the future still shrouded in murky light.

Are these quick strobe like flashes of light emanating from the penumbra enough to make the Constitution workable in the time of Trump?

One audience member does get to vote, after we all watch Dizzia take on this debate with a real-world 15 year-old, whose mind is lighted in ways that Dizzia and most in the audience can barely discern.  You get to take your pocket Constitution home too.

Broadway in Chicago Hosts Timely Tour

This is the kind of play that takes on the glow of the moment.  It catapulted to the top of the charts in New York City’s Broadway during the Brett Kavenaugh hearings.  When the 15 year-old debater-—this night performed by Jocelyn Shek—shares that she looks forward to being President when she’s 45 years old, a man in the audience shouted, “..hopefully not the first woman President!”, perhaps channeling the news of debater-skilled Elizabeth Warren’s comments as she withdrew from the Presidential Primary.

If you too often start your morning listening to historian John Meecham poetically long for the good ‘ol days, you may similarly leave this play wondering what would have been written if the Founding Mothers had penned our Constitution. If you prefer MAGA rallies, this really isn’t your show.

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Note: This is now added to the Picture this Post round up of BEST PLAYS IN CHICAGO, where it will remain until the end of the run. Click here to read – Top Picks for Theater in Chicago NOW – Chicago Plays PICTURE THIS POST Loves

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Broadway in Chicago WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME
Jocelyn Shek

When:

Through April 12, 2020

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE
Tuesdays at 7:30PM
Wednesdays at 2PM & 7:30PM (no 2PM performance on March 18 and April 1)
Thursdays at 7:30PM
Fridays at 7:30PM
Saturdays at 2PM & 8PM
Sundays at 2PM & 7:30PM (no 7:30PM performance on March 15, 29, and April 12)

Where:

Broadway Playhouse
Water Tower Place (175 E. Chestnut)
Chicago

Tickets:

$30+

For full price tickets and information, go to Broadway In Chicago website or call (800) 775-2000

Check for Half-Price Deals from Hot Tix:

Photos courtesy of Broadway in Chicago

Note: Picture This Post reviews are excerpted by Theatre in Chicago

Amy Munice

About the Author: Amy Munice

Amy Munice is Editor-in-Chief and Co-Publisher of Picture This Post. She covers books, dance, film, theater, music, museums and travel. Prior to founding Picture This Post, Amy was a freelance writer and global PR specialist for decades—writing and ghostwriting thousands of articles and promotional communications on a wide range of technical and not-so-technical topics.

Amy hopes the magazine’s click-a-picture-to-read-a-vivid-account format will nourish those ever hunting for under-discovered cultural treasures. She especially loves writing articles about travel finds, showcasing works by cultural warriors of a progressive bent, and shining a light on bold, creative strokes by fledgling artists in all genres.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ARTICLES BY AMY MUNICE.

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