A swing and a missCatey Sullivanon October 19, 2022 at 3:55 pm

As the single most-produced contemporary playwright in the Goodman Theater’s history, Rebecca Gilman has provided audiences with some truly perceptive, unflinching depictions of life’s varied brutalities. 1999’s Spinning Into Butter took on racism at a small, supposedly progressive liberal arts college. Fourteen years before #MeToo, Boy Gets Girl stunned with its take on the nightmarish toll of stalking and harassment. 

But Gilman is prolific, and her works have disappointed on occasion, as with the thudding 2010’s The True History of the Johnstown Flood or the underwhelming Soups, Stews, and Casseroles: 1976. 

Swing StateThrough 11/13: Wed 7:30 PM, Thu 2 and 7:30 PM, Fri 8 PM, Sat 2 and 8 PM, Sun 2 and 7:30 PM; also Tue 11/1 7:30 PM; Sun 10/23, 7:30 PM only; Sun 11/13, 2 PM only; no shows Wed 10/19; ASL interpretation Fri 10/28, touch tour and audio description Sat 12/5 2 PM (touch tour at 12:30 PM)

Sadly, Swing State swings into the latter camp, as it casts a wide net to take on the divisive political beliefs among rural Wisconsinites. Directed by Robert Falls and featuring an impeccable ensemble, Swing State has two major problems: First, a plot hole makes a climactic scene of violence ring hollow. A threat made in the penultimate scene makes no logical or legal sense, and it renders any sense of perilousness artificial. 

Second, the 105-minute intermissionless drama tries to do too much: climate change, mass extinction, police violence, mental illness, the prison industrial complex, and the fascist undertow of the far right all rise to the fore in the unassuming home of retired school teacher Peg (Mary Beth Fisher).

Peg’s nemesis is Sheriff Kris (Kirsten Fitzgerald), a small-town powermonger whose words, attitude, and demeanor all put the local law enforcer squarely in MAGA territory, even if specific political figures are never invoked. 

Sheriff Kris scoffs at Peg’s laborious attempts to save both the acres of natural prairie she owns and her young ex-con friend Ryan (Bubba Weiler), recently released after being incarcerated on a felony charge. Also in the mix: Dani (Anne E. Thompson), a local cop and a young woman who was once one of Peg’s students. The town is so small that not only does everyone know your name, law enforcement feels comfortable hanging out in your kitchen even if you’re not home. 

But the mostly unspoken backstories and generations-long, intricate small-town connections among the four characters do little to enrich the plot as it meanders through an encyclopedia of social issues. Moreover, a violent denouement happens so quickly the circumstances are muddied. Was the victim wielding a gun? Were they trying to get a gun? Does the threat that supposedly prompted the victim to reach for the gun hold any water? Unclear, unclear, and absolutely not. Swing State, in the end, fails to capture the sky-high political stakes implied by the title or deliver a dramatically satisfying tale of a divided town. 

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