Nikil Vyas’s The Mosinee Project takes a theatrical look at an unusual pageant that took place in the small town of Mosinee in Wisconsin on May Day 1950, a time when America was whipped into a panic by a red scare claiming communism was threatening to conquer them.
The show opens with the three actors, Jonathan Oldfield, Camilla Anvar and Martha Watson Allpress, briefly describing what they intended to do before donning their period costumes and becoming for most of the play the characters John Decker, a member of the American Legion in Wisconsin, and the former members of the Communist Party Joseph Kornfedder and Ben Gitlow.
The three, along with other town worthies, decided that since people nationally weren't taking the threat seriously, they would dramatically conjure up a fake conquest of the town of about 1,500 people to illustrate what it would be like.
The scary nonsense of the notorious rabble-rousing Wisconsin senator Joe McCarthy gets a mention. Video footage on the plush, red back of the stage curtain lets us see something of the actual town along with small models of its buildings laid out on a stage-left tabletop. Imaginative lighting from Catja Hamilton, at times, helps to generate a sombre mood.
Using news reports and written reflections by participants, the cast gives us an imagined version of what took place. Early on, it can seem like a serious documentary reconstruction, but as we drift into scenes where, for instance, they start to haggle about how they need to arrest the mayor, the show feels as if it might be heading into the territory of a light situation comedy.
We never really get to know much about the characters or feel there is anything at stake. This prevents the development of any dramatic tension. However, the actors are impressive and, along with the technical crew, deliver a smooth, clear and mildly interesting glimpse of a peculiar historical event.