Writer and Director: Nikil Vyas
Original Co-Creator: Aaron Kilercioglu
Nikil Vyas’s The Mosinee Project is bursting with ideas. It’s probably the first time we’ll have heard of this extraordinary event in the life of the small Wisconsin town of Mosinee. In 1950 a couple of members of the patriotic American Legion felt so strongly that people needed to be aware of the threat of communism that they came up with a startling idea. For a single day, 1 May 1950, Mosinee would appear to have been taken over by the Reds. A strike at the town’s paper mill would spark off the military coup. In no time, officials would be arrested and the mayor killed. Local people would be forced into a whole new way of life. News of the event, covered by the media, would, they hoped, be carried across America.
Vyas and co-creator Aaron Kilercioglu want to cut through the inevitably lengthy narrative to make the audience feel the sensations themselves. Like the opening of Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black, they immediately expose the mechanism: three actors spell out their aim to us – to make us feel fear – then start rehearsing tiny moments. All three, Jonathan Oldfied, Camilla Anvar and Martha Watson Allpress, are superb: precise, professional and often very funny. An early transformation is a delight, as they start to workshop a typical ‘Honey, I’m home!’ scene. Played at first for laughs, the scene takes on an altogether different shade, the actors themselves startled when, directed to act ‘more communist’, each one enters powerfully into the imagined new reality.
The three then take on the characters of the central instigators. First John Decker and Francis Schweinler, editor of the Mosinee Times, then joined by former communist, Joseph Zach Kornfeder, who has a powerful reason for his hatred of communism. There is a swift layering of scenes. Fragments of verbatim reports are matched by other scenes which they admit are invented. It’s in the planning of the May Day event that the play is at its strongest. Video projection (Dan Light and Lucy Rogers), lighting (Catja Hamilton) and sound design (Patch Middleton) all contribute forcefully to the intensity of the drama.
Later on, however, the narrative gets harder to follow, and the anticipated climax is almost lost in the quick succession of scenes. It’s admirable to attempt to tell the story in a scant 70 minutes, but perhaps some of these later parts need more space to breathe. Overall it’s an inventive, often exhilarating piece, but at times it can be baffling.
Runs until 22 March 2025
The Reviews Hub Score
Often exhilarating, sometimes baffling
The Mosinee Project is a gripping play, elevated by Camilla Anvar’s exceptional performance as a male communist. Her portrayal is bold, authentic, and deeply compelling, bringing raw emotion and complexity to the role. Anvar’s masterful execution makes her performance truly unforgettable.
A truly inventive and gripping tale of a little known but frankly very odd episode of US history with many undertones linking to events of today. The gifted three actors kept you gripped whilst they expertly managed character, time and content change seamlessly. I would thoroughly recommend to anyone interested in the complexities of human nature.