In the middle of my 17th season as a Guthrie Theater subscriber, a global pandemic shut down live performing arts. Since it opened in 2006, I had been going to the big blue beautiful building on the river once every month or two, and then suddenly, it all stopped. I was beyond thrilled to return to the Guthrie, my happy place, this week to experience the national tour of the Tony-nominated Broadway play
What the Constitution Means to Me. With a mask on my face and a vaccine card in my hand (which, after a solid month of indoor theater-going, feels normal), walking through the familiar spaces felt like coming home. And what a play to begin this new season of theater! I had seen the filmed version of the Broadway play on Amazon, but seeing it live in person is how it was meant to be seen. Written by Heidi Schreck, who also played the role of herself on Broadway, this play is part civics lesson and part very personal story, as it very seriously (and humorously) explores the issues of domestic violence, abortion rights, and generational trauma. It is simultaneously depressing and hopeful about the state of our nation. Which is pretty on track for the world right now. Two years after its Broadway premiere and we're still very much in the thick of it, and this play perhaps helps us see things in a new way.
