Edinburgh 2024 Review: THE MOSINEE PROJECT, Underbelly Cowgate

As slick and suave as its performers’ suits, The Mosinee Project is a curious little piece of documentary theatre. It takes as its subject an experiment carried out in the American midwest in 1950: to demonstrate the threat of communism, agents staged a faux communist takeover of the small town of Mosinee. It’s a fascinating set-up, but unfortunately the show doesn’t quite live up to its intrigue. 

The story of Mosinee is told by three performers: Martha Watson Allpress, Millicent Wong, and Jonathan Oldfield. Switching between narrating the story and playing those involved, the trio use live camera work, “verbatim” audio, and projections to recreate this extraordinary event. This Untapped Award winning show, crafted by lead artist Nikhil Vyas, is a compelling oddity, bringing history to life with a pervasive sense of unease and suspicion. 

The cast work together well, smoothly executing what must be a technically complex show: Wong especially shines in her role as ex-communist Zack Kornfeder, convincingly playing a somewhat menacing middle-aged man who couldn’t be further removed from herself. The trio are also supported by Dan Light's creative video design, which helps to build a town out of wooden blocks and plastic soldiers. 

The Mosinee Project promises to interrogate how we perceive America and its impact on the world, referencing the ‘fucked’ current state of things and the Trump presidency. While it keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout, it never entirely follows through on this promise. There are certainly fascinating parallels to be drawn between this bizarre experiment and modern-day attitudes towards communism and extreme politics, but they’re never really brought to the surface. 

Similarly, the show begins with a nod to the imagination needed to conceptualise the Mosinee takeover on such a small scale. The show sets out to stage a military coup, and perhaps a murder, using only three actors and a camera. The premise is so strong: a theatrical experiment about what was, essentially, a theatrical experiment. But while effective in theory, The Mosinee Project fails to fully interrogate its own staging and purpose. The lines between truth and fiction are successfully blurred, but we’re never really shown why. For a show about deception and pretence, there's so much more depth to be mined.

That’s not to say the show isn’t engrossing. Ever shifting, ever mysterious, this is an intelligent and intellectual piece of theatre with the potential to be outstanding. 

The Mosinee Project runs at Underbelly Cowgate (Big Belly) until 25 August

Cover Image Credit: David Monteith-Hodge

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