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Redtwist Theatre bucks the seasonal trend and leans into our current national malaise with Erik Gernand’s The Totality of All Things, now in a world premiere under Enrico Spada’s direction as part of the company’s inaugural Twisted Playfest, a new-plays incubator featuring six pieces at various stages of development. If you’re trying to cut down on rage bait after the election, this may not be the show for you. And if you’re allergic to occasional splashes of didacticism, it may also work your nerves. But overall, Gernand has crafted a meat-and-potatoes debate play that gives its characters enough breathing space to make for an engaging small-town drama.
The Totality of All Things
Through 1/19/2025: Thu–Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 3:30 PM; also Sat 1/11 and 1/18 3:30 PM; Thu 12/19 and Sat 12/21 8 PM; no shows Fri 12/20, Sun 12/22, or Thu–Sun 1/1-1/5; Redtwist Theatre, 1044 W. Bryn Mawr, 773-728-7529, redtwisttheatre.org, $35, $15 students/military/seniors, pay what you can Fri
That small town is Lewiston, Indiana, where the local high school newspaper consistently punches above its weight, thanks to firebrand journalism teacher Judith Benson (Jacqueline Grandt), the ex-wife of Principal Benson (Phil Aman) and bestie of fellow teacher DeeAnn (Suzy Krueckeberg). It’s fall 2015 and Obergefell v. Hodges has just made marriage equality the law of the land. Judith’s bulletin board celebrating the decision runs afoul of school board policy. But it also incites someone to paint a red swastika on it. When Judith refuses to back down and sends one of her students, Micah (Kason Chesky), on an assignment to uncover the perp, political and personal rifts begin growing, with increasingly higher stakes.
“We don’t have Nazis in our school. We have idiots,” the principal proclaims early on. But one of the strengths of Gernand’s play is illustrating how easily “idiots” can be co-opted by radical organizations with clearly malicious intentions. If you’re tired of the bothsidesism of, say, op-ed pages at legacy media, then you’ll enjoy the explication of “the dipshit conundrum” (it’s hard to give equal weight to both sides “if one side is full of complete and total dipshittery”) laid out here.
Some of the plot twists in this Redtwist production feel a little arbitrary, and some moments feel a little telegraphed. But Grandt, a longtime ensemble member, slips into Judith’s sometimes self-righteous skin (and her insistence on one nonfungible approach to finding the truth) with just the right mix of vinegar and vulnerability. And Gernand’s play also reminds us that in small towns like Lewiston it’s harder to pick a political side without suffering some real social penalties.
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