KALONA
It takes guts to open a play with the voice of Adolph Hitler speaking to an appreciative crowd.
It takes perhaps even more guts to assign the role of Hitler to a broom.
But that is how “Coop,” a new object theatre drama by Mary Swander, begins, placing the audience immediately in the context of World War II. President Roosevelt calls the nation to arms and preparedness; a Japanese plane drops bombs on Pearl Harbor; millions of American men are drafted into military service.
Including an Amishman named Jake, played by an orange traffic cone with blue duster and straw hat, who finds himself in a bit of a pickle.
“If I go to war, my own Amish people will shun me. If I don’t go to war, my English neighbors will do even worse things to me,” he thinks.
The remainder of “Coop” explores those even worse things, as Jake is granted conscientious objector status by the draft board and is sent off to fight forest fires in Colorado as a form of alternative service. Only that never happens; instead, when he and seven other C.O.s reach the state, they’re pushed off the train and shoved into a chicken coop, where Jake will remain imprisoned for the rest of the war.
It's a riveting show, I discover, when Swander and actor -- and in this case, puppeteer --Rip Russell invite me in to watch a dress rehearsal shortly before the first performance on Sept. 7. Not only is it inventive, with ordinary objects like a stainless-steel bowl morphing from combat helmet to soup server as the drama unfolds, for example, but the fact that this story can be told with an economy of resources – one actor, one audio recording, and a suitcase full of household objects – is an achievement.
The narrative and characters are affecting. The audience is invited inside Jake’s head as he “writes” a letter to his mother in thought, as he has no paper or postal service access, trying to comprehend the incomprehensible situation in which he finds himself. Flashbacks of sorts reveal what happened to Uncle Fred during World War I, when he was also subject to mistreatment as a C.O., something Jake believed wasn’t supposed to recur.
Meanwhile, the guards who torment Jake and Uncle Fred aren’t wholly evil; they’re more complex, showing mercy and compassion at turns, even as they are ignorant to what it means to be Amish, Mennonite, Quaker, or Brethren.
At its heart, “Coop” reveals a little-known history and at the same time makes you think. The events that unfold may be specific to the first half of the 20th century and to pacifists, but they are also more universal; they are merely an instance of a broader pattern we see on repeat.
“This is the battleground here, inside my head, inside this chicken coop,” Jake writes to his mother as the play nears conclusion. “My guards are waiting for me to put on the uniform and be free. Free. What is freedom? The military says its fighting for freedom. For Whom? Certainly not for a lowly Amish C.O. stuck here with a bunch of chickens.”
Although the subject matter is somber, “Coop” isn’t a downer. There are moments of lightness, and Swander’s conscious choice to use washcloths and dustpans to tell the story further reduces the psychological weight.
And in the end, the human spirit triumphs.
Bad Angle Events presents a free performance, open to the public, of “Coop” on Saturday, Sept. 13 at 7 p.m. at Celebration Hall, Hillcrest Academy, 1421 540th St. SW, Kalona. The play runs for one hour with a talk-back discussion following the performance.
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here