MCT's "The Island" Is A Triumph

For the year that theaters have been shuttered due to the pandemic, I have often thought that Milwaukee Chamber Theatre’s new artistic director, Brent Hazelton, has gotten a really raw deal. After shadowing the previous director, Michael Wright, for an entire year, Hazelton finally took the reins of the storied organization with one of the most diverse and exciting slates of plays that any arts organization had scheduled for the 2020/2021 season. And just when he was preparing to put his incredible plans into place, everything was shut down due to COVID.

While other companies leapt to Zoom and haphazard, makeshift productions, Hazelton and MCT bided their time, doing readings, participating in the inaugural Milwaukee Black Theater Festival, nurturing young writers through the Young Playwrights Festival, and producing engaging online content about many of their actors. And now, in the preface to the company’s first video production, Hazelton proudly announced that he worked with all the necessary unions and health regulations to be the first theater in the state to present a fully staged theater production with only one element missing: the live audience.

And after a year of viewing theater online, I can say unequivocally that this exceptional production of The Island was worth waiting for. Fantastic performances by two formidable young actors, seamless filming by Milwaukee-based Studio Gear, and unmistakable theatricality infuse material that is startlingly relevant in its discussions of racial inequality, the message to keep fighting for justice, and even the characters’ sense of isolation. MCT has now set the standard for virtual performances and it is a high bar – one I’m looking forward to immensely, as the company presents three more plays in this format over the next two months.

The Island is a stark portrait of imprisonment during Apartheid. But the two main characters, John and Winston, are more than cellmates. They are more than fellow political prisoners condemned to grueling and sadistic hard labor on South Africa’s infamous Robben Island. They are one another’s caregiver and protector. More closely bound than by the shackles that connect their wrists as they are forced to run around the prison yard to the point of exhaustion, they are each others’ salvation.

This relationship, brilliantly brought to life by actors DiMonte Henning and Sherrick Robinson, is at the center of the drama, by Athol Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ktshona. And it is John and Winston’s devotion to each other that allows this story of revolt against state-sponsored oppression to transcend the genre of political theater and become something more universal, masterful, and emotionally gripping.

Under the superb direction of Mikael Burke, Henning and Robinson make the most of each beat in the script, shifting organically in tone from comic to despairing, defiant to hopeless, and back. With flawless accents (dialect coach Nathan Crocker) and deft physicality, the actors easily transport audiences from the unrelenting sun of a quarry, to the hard, cold containment of their cell, and the desolate monotony of their days.

The taut 90-minute drama begins with a raw, wordless scene depicting the prisoners’ pointless, repetitive, physically punishing tasks. A cacophony of grunts and visceral howls make this mimed prologue painful to witness. To further break down their spirits and their bodies, John and Winston are handcuffed together and made to run until they can hardly stand.

Desperate, injured, and panting, they collapse into their cell. In the midst of familiar rituals—washing with a precious rag, bickering, telling each other stories to give their minds a rest from the abominable prison conditions—John presses Winston to join him in presenting the classic Greek tragedy Antigone at a prison talent night. But just as they agree to start rehearsing, John receives the news that his sentence has been drastically reduced—he will be free in three months while the other serves a life sentence—changing their interactions and challenging their bond.

Set against a minimal and bleak backdrop (scenic design by Stephen Hudson-Mairet) their mere survival seems heroic. But as the men perform their makeshift version of Sophocles’ drama Antigone—about a woman who defies the laws of the state to follow the laws of god, and then faces her death sentence with certainty that her act of civil disobedience was just and necessary—it is clear that this drama is the prisoners’ real act of bravery and heroism. Henning’s cries for justice that explode from his strong but weary body during the play’s final scene are both awe-inspiring and frightening in their power.

As the lights fade on the final scene, the men are once again being forced to run for their lives. The audience is left to ponder how many more acts of defiance it will take before equality will finally win out.

Milwaukee Chamber Theatre’s production of The Island is available online through March 28. So log on, buy your virtual ticket, and settle in for an evening of fierce storytelling that will remind you why theater is an essential and transformative medium. You will be glad you did.