PicksInSix Review: What the Constitution Means to Me - Broadway in Chicago

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Can I stay here all night?
Guest Contributor | Kaitlyn Linsner

“What the Constitution Means to Me” leaves a profound impact on the audience by way of whip-smart and engaging storytelling from playwright Heidi Schreck and director Oliver Butler, played exuberantly by Cassie Beck in the national tour of the two-time 2019 Tony Award nominated play that opened Wednesday at the Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place. In a captivating narrative of her personal journey with the United States Constitution, we spend time with the fifteen-year-old Schreck on a Rachel Hauck set designed to look like the American Legion Halls where she competed in debates about the Constitution for college scholarship money.

Teenage Schreck loved the Constitution and had high hopes for its continued potential as a living, breathing document essentially twisting and bending to afford us basic human rights. She held tightly to this love and also tightly to her family history without the emotional capacity to yet relate her familial trauma to this country’s long history of violence against women, indigenous people, Black communities, people of color, and LGBTQIA+ folks.

As the play progresses, we watch her connect the dots. Schreck’s older self weaves in anecdotes and deeper, critical analysis of the Constitution and seminal constitutional law cases. In the very capable hands of Beck, Schreck’s narrative thrusts us into facing staggering statistics about epidemic levels of domestic violence against women and severe inequities faced by immigrants, pointedly acknowledging her own privilege as a white woman throughout. In rapid succession, she also beautifully captures the struggle that inhibits many of us from honestly engaging with the Constitution, those in power who interpret it and the Constitution’s impact, on a deeper, personal level. Looking inward in this way requires transcending political talking points and disassembling preconceived notions and tired schoolbook narratives to truly connect with where we have been and need to go collectively… DING! 

The bell rings. Times up. In a great auditory transition to the next topic, the American Legion Hall debate moderator, played by Mike Iveson, abruptly stops Schreck mid-monologue and instructs her to talk about the second clause of Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment. Iveson sits in the corner throughout the play, largely silent with a grimace as Schreck pushes his comfort level. I particularly loved when Iveson’s character sheds the moderator role and presents as himself, a gay man. He tells a story illustrating the complexity of struggling with masculinity while directly participating in patriarchal oppression, and I thought to myself “How much more can she possibly cover? Can I stay here all night?” 

I could have. She covered so much. I learned so much. I cried and also laughed heartily because Schreck does a good job inserting blistering humor which Beck delivers with pinpoint comedic timing in a well-rounded performance that transitions smoothly from the often harsh and tragic to laugh-out-loud funny. The live debate about the future of the document between Beck and high school student Emilyn Toffler adds a dynamic that is both real and fun audience participation. I thoroughly enjoyed Toffler’s excellent performance but do wish a local Chicago high school student participated in this portion instead.

“What the Constitution Means to Me” ultimately fosters important dialogue surrounding the continued fight for human rights and one’s personal journey through growth and change. It’s entertaining, challenging and shines a very real light on the relatable struggle to keep pushing toward hope despite it all. Wailing and wailing and wailing … forward and forward and forward.

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR | KAITLYN LINSNER graduated from Northern Illinois University College of Law in 2020 and currently practices as an attorney in Chicago.

PHOTO|Joan Marcus

BROADWAY IN CHCAGO
presents
WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME
BROADWAY PLAYHOUSE
Water Tower Place
through November 7

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