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Reviews are coming in for THE AMISH PROJECT!
“Jessica Dickey is giving such an extraordinary performance in “The Amish Project” at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater that she makes it easy to overlook something else: the play is also a remarkable piece of writing. Ms. Dickey the actress has herself to thank for the compelling material; she is also the playwright.
The success of the piece is all the more impressive because any description of it sends up a “cheesy exploitation” red flag. The play is inspired by the killing of five girls in a hostage-taking at an Amish school in Lancaster County, Pa., in October 2006, yet beyond a few facts drawn from the incident, it is fictional; the characters are imagined by Ms. Dickey. It’s as if someone offered a drama called “Personal Stories of 9/11 That I Just Made Up.”
But any trepidation is dispelled almost as soon as the lights come up on Ms. Dickey, wearing traditional Amish dress nicely complemented by Lauren Helpern’s sparse set.
Ms. Dickey, under Sarah Cameron Sunde’s direction, is completely convincing as she switches among the play’s seven characters. That is no easy feat, since those characters include both the gunman and two of his young victims.
The play, of course, is built around the cataclysm inside the school, but Ms. Dickey visits that only obliquely. She is far more interested in the side dramas that tie her characters together, which she draws out beautifully and in unexpected ways as she explores the theme of forgiveness.
Bill North, a local college professor, seems to be in the play mostly to provide exposition, but in one of the work’s sublime touches, she turns him into something else entirely. And what’s that Hispanic grocery clerk doing in this story? A lot, as it turns out.”
“Critics pick...Insightfully written and performed by Jessica Dickey, and crisply directed by Sarah Cameron Sunde…”
“It brings you face to face with pertinent perplexities in a way that’s as real as it is transporting.”
“…a beautiful, compassionate, thoroughly intelligent and heartfelt ode to the people involved in the October 2nd, 2006 massacre …”
“Intense emotions…flow from Ms. Dickey’s mind to the stage of Rattlestick Theater where you can and should witness for yourself how the Amish could have forgiven the murderer and reached out to his family despite the horror that it caused them.”
“Wonderful small details define each character. Jessica Dickey gives a truthful and honest portrayal of every one of them.”
“Thought-provoking, compelling theatre…”
“The writing is intense and concise, and the seven characters that Dickey plays…are vivid and fully fleshed out.”
“Sunde’s direction is beautifully detailed…”
“The physical production—spare and simple—is exquisite; kudos to set designer Lauren Helpern, sound designer Jill BC DuBoff, and especially lighting designer Nicole Pearce…”
“Pick of the Week!...Five Stars…True Art Masterpiece…Don’t Miss!”
“[A] good, tough, poetic fictional take on what happened that day in 2006…”
“Dickey’s performance is memorable…”
“Extraordinarily moving…[Dickey’s] craft made me weep. The virtuosic writer-performer acts her bonnet off…”
“The best [solo performance plays], the most complex and difficult to perform, are multi-peopled story-plays with the one actor playing all the characters. I’ve seen more than 20 such plays over the last three years. The Amish Project is one of the very best.”
“Dickey’s research into the Amish community has clearly been thorough and she imparts much of what she has learnt to her audience, engendering a sense of understanding and empathy for these people…A powerful and truly thought-provoking piece of theatre.”
For more information on THE AMISH PROJECT, or to purchase tickets or a 2009/10 Rattlestick Membership Plan, click here.
Featuring plays by Lucy Thurber, Mando Alvarado, Craig Wright and Annie Baker
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