Review: THE MOSINEE PROJECT, New Diorama

We live in a time where Trump has been accusing the Democratic Party of Communism since his first campaign. He even went as far as describing last year’s election as “a choice between Communism and freedom.” But the United States have been on the fear-mongering route for much longer than Trump’s shenanigans began and the transfer of this Untapped Award-winning production is exceptionally timely. Writer and director Nikhil Vyas introduces us to a real-life event that’s as baffling as this play is striking.

On the 1st of May in 1950, the people of the idyllic town of Mosinee in Wisconsin woke up to staggering news. Overnight, they had been seized by a fake Communist uprising staged by the American Legion to warn the citizens of the threat of communist spies. With everything that’s happening overseas - including Trump’s latest stunt that turned the driveway of the White House into a temporary Tesla dealership - it’s something we could see happen right now.

Counterfactual present an impressively well researched performance that’s funnier than expected in its stagecraft. They deliver a solid piece of great political and sociological interest that’s open to admit the shortcomings of their journey and all the dead ends they found while writing it. However, with a running time of around 75 minutes, it manages to cover the bare bones of the necessary context that led to the project (McCarthyism), but none of the aftermath (everything that built up to the height of the Cold War). They perhaps focused a tad too much on one of the controversial figures involved, leading to a lack of aftercare for the material itself. There isn’t enough scope for them to pause and reflect on the true meaning of what unfolded in Mosinee.

Vyas and the team effectively toy with layers of storytelling. The trio of actors (Camilla Anvar, Jonathan Oldfield, and Martha Watson Allpress) are both narrators and main roles, alternating seamlessly between perspectives to establish the company’s investment in the story. Catja Hamilton’s lighting design helps, opening up and closing down to highlight the tiers in the narrative. It’s a shame this balancing act gets relatively discarded when the sauce heats up.

The language edges into shock value, but too rarely expounds, so the point becomes increasingly muddled, a bit like the show itself. We suddenly switch from the larger picture to the subjective angle of Joseph Zack Kornfeder, the Austro-Hungarian immigrant who abruptly quit the Communist Party in 1934 and lost his family to it portrayed by Anvar. The horrors of Soviet rule materialise through his narration while the residents of Mosinee speak through the other performers. It should be even more of a jarring juxtaposition, with Kornfeder’s recollections of political prisoners and rations used to expose the morbid Disneyfication of Communism for the benefit of the Americans.

The descriptions of powerlessness in the face of the brutal treatment at the hands of the Militsiya are spun into a twisted satire, with the people of Mosinee seeing the experiment as whimsical. A nameless American character suggests that they should do something like that more often because it brings the community together. There’s plenty of potential to the tone and trajectory of it, but The Mosinee Project needs more focus. A delightful veiled irony permeates throughout, culminating with the remark that, while the American press descended on the town, the USSR also sent in a reporter for their own reasons. It twists the attention once more, abandoning the initial aim again.

Having left the constraints of the Edinburgh Fringe, the text could be expanded to give it a chance to breathe and sink in properly. The consequences for Mosinee are barely touched upon and the production ultimately slightly suffers for it. It remains an exceptional starting place for a story that matters.

The Mosinee Project runs at the New Diorama until 22 March.

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