Review: THE AMISH PROJECT Explores Forgiveness at Open Stage of Harrisburg

Those of us who were in Central Pennsylvania at the time of the Nickel Mines school massacre and were old enough to understand it remember two things: the horror of the event, and the amazement that the local Amish community was able to forgive the man who killed their children. The amazement has continued for many, and it is now examined in the play THE AMISH PROJECT by former Central Pensylvania resident and playwright Jessica Dickey, which is now onstage at Open Stage of Harrisburg.

Originally conceived as a monologue on the subject of forgiveness, Dickey has reshaped it for an ensemble cast, and it is a uniformly fine cast that's in director Donald Alsedek's hands. Open Stage veterans like Lisa Leone Dickerson and Jeff Wasileski, and other area performers like Jeremy Burkett, including some excellent juvenile performers, take the story, in its fictionalized version, through all of the permutations of forgiveness.

Juveniles Noelle Sacher and Sheridan Lain play Anna and Velda, two of the Amish girls who were present at the Nickel Mines Amish School, and take us through the minds of the children, while a store clerk and local farm wife, along with a local religion professor who knows the Amish community take us through the minds of the Amish and the English observing the event and interacting with the shooter's wife.

Alexis Campbell does a lovely job of interpreting "Carol Stuckey," the fictionalized name of the shooter's wife. (Charles Roberts, the shooter, is named in the play as "Eddie Stuckey." Everything about Stuckey's person, however, fits Roberts exactly.) It is Carol who is the heart of the play, as she is the one who receives the forgiveness of the Amish, as well as the opprobrium of other locals such as "Sherry Local", nicely played by Lisa Leone Dickerson, who finds the Amish weird, but can't think that Carol, whom she sees in public at the store, cannot but be as disturbed as her husband, the killer of the children. And what we learn from Carol is that forgiveness, vaunted as the greatest of all things, can cut as sharply as steel. She's neither prepared for nor really able to accept forgiveness any more than she's prepared for the abuse of the public. Campbell's portrayal of Carol's hurt and confusion are beautifully displayed, as is Dickerson's interpretation of that average person who's convinced that everyone else is at least a little crazy.

The real revelation, however, may be Sushma Saha's portrayal of America, the Hispanic supermarket clerk, who has her own forgiveness issues to deal with, but who has a moment of unsolicited compassion for Carol when Sherry sees her and goes ballistic. Saha's portrayal of the teen mother who's had go-rounds with her own mother but has found more than intellectual salvation in Catholic philosophers is both charming and warming. She is the foil to Carol - while Carol cannot accept the forgiveness of others, America manages to find forgiveness within herself, which is immeasurably greater.

Bill North, a religion professor trying to explain his Amish friends to the audience in the guise of giving a press conference for reporters unfamiliar with the insular community, is played ably by Jeff Wasileski. It is not Wasileski's fault that the character is weakly drawn, or that he's forced to speak far too generally. According to North, the forgiveness is simply part of the strong faith of the Amish in their beliefs. But North is not Amish and is forced to speak for all adult Amish - there is no adult Amish voice, female or male, in the play. One wonders if the entire community really did feel this overwhelming compassion for Carol Stuckey and her husband, or if there was not at least one parent who was begrudging. The lack of reference here feels empty and incomplete.

Similarly incomplete, but for obvious reasons, is the character of Eddie Stuckey, the shooter. Jeremy Burkett is a fine actor, but he's playing a character whose part itself is incomplete. Charles Roberts did not leave letters, nor a long trail of comment, about his motivations for the acts he committed, so his avatar, Eddie, cannot except by speculation, but Eddie voices a "not gonna talk about why" statement that makes the character lose depth. There is more that can be concluded by knowing that the real killer's own daughter died young than by speculating that the lube he carried means that Charles/Eddie had a pedophilic quirk that has been proposed elsewhere and voiced in the play by others; a suggestion of any motivation by Eddie himself, accurate or otherwise, would have made the character feel more complete.

Aside from the problem of voices and motivations - whether Amish, English, or "Eddie's" - unstated, the transitions between characters' voices do not always flow, for this is not a play of interaction but a collection of monologues, back and forth among the characters, all attempting to link together like the pieces of a Chinese puzzle box, but here one in which the pieces don't always fit smoothly. There are rough edges that rub against each other, while other pieces don't fit quite closely enough. We understand the importance of forgiveness. We understand that there are two forms, forgiveness by others and forgiveness of oneself. We understand that Amish theology makes absolute forgiveness of others possible. But there is no true adult Amish voice in this, and no suggestion that any of the Amish might not have had to wrestle with this in their conscience at all, which feels specious and as if something is being left out of the picture. No group is a complete automaton, thinking and feeling in lockstep, but that fact is left out.

The problem may be in the title, THE AMISH PROJECT. What is the project here? Is it one by the Amish, or one studying them? There simply isn't one structured within it; it's certainly not the unseen reporters trying to understand the Amish. It is a discussion of forgiveness, involving Amish faith, Carol's reactions, and America's discovery of forgiveness in herself; perhaps "The Forgiveness Project" would be a more accurate title.

But there's wonderful acting here, and a real sense of warmth among the cast, as well as a particularly nice set evoking a one-room Amish schoolhouse. The play itself, for all its flaws in moving from solo performance as originally conceived by Dickey to ensemble performance, tackles an enormous and extraordinary subject: what does it mean to forgive and to be forgiven? It's a subject well worth considering, and this production is the kind of vehicle that makes it easier for an audience to think about it. The intimacy of Open Stage's theatre brings the audience into the middle of it, as if they were in fact part of Professor North's briefing, which makes for compelling audience bonding with characters and the subject. One feels as if they know America; have seen Anna and Velda, the Amish girls, playing; have heard North trying to evoke the thoughts of an especially insular community to curious outsiders. It's the perfect setting for something of this magnitude. If you haven't caught it yet, let the cast and the immersive setting pull you in next weekend.

Through October 18 at Open Stage of Harrisburg. Call 717-732-6736 or visit openstagehbg.com.

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