Beth Lacke stars as Heidi in “What The Constitution Means To Me”/Photo: Brett Beiner Photography
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For playwright and actor Heidi Schreck, it was American Legion Post Ten in Wenatchee, Washington. For me, it was American Legion Post 405 in Dousman, Wisconsin. It wasn’t a debate scenario as it was for fifteen-year-old Schreck, though a scholarship was given to help a hometown kid (me) go to college. Like Schreck, our narrator in “What the Constitution Means to Me,” embraced wholly by Beth Lacke, I couldn’t help but draw numerous parallels between her story and mine.
Schreck’s play, which premiered in 2017, showcases our narrator regaling us with her complicated love story. This romance between an American teen circa the 1980s and the United States Constitution circa the 1780s demonstrates just how much can change in a lifetime. Or, in the case of our deeply flawed U.S. Constitution, several lifetimes. Lacke as Schreck handily delivers a teenager’s magical, metaphorical essay on the document while tying in the ways in which this pivotal paper has failed her and the people who came before her.
The Legionnaire (Raymond Fox, left) is clear with Heidi (Beth Lacke) that she must strictly follow the rules of the competition/Photo: Brett Beiner Photography
Like many other theater nerds, I jumped to Prime Video in October 2020 when a filmed version of Schreck’s original Broadway production of this play premiered. During such a tumultuous year, in the midst of a deeply difficult Presidential election, I was enamored. My heart (and eyes) swelled as Schreck’s play examined how the Constitution has failed and continues to fail its people either directly or indirectly via bad judgment calls. But now? A year after the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the continued decimation of the rights of my fellow LGBTQIA+ folks, and the utter inhuman treatment of immigrants around the country, this play is more important than ever.
Time and time again TimeLine Theatre Company’s productions speak to a moment in time through the past in ways we may not see before the show begins. I suspected “What the Constitution Means to Me” would be much more impactful this time around than it was three years ago. What I could not have foreseen was the chorus of sobs, sniffles, and uncomfortable shuffles from the audience. Tears of a mutual understanding from folks who know firsthand what it means to be oppressed and preyed upon. Cycle breakers who have seen violence hold their loved ones (or themselves) back.
Even down to Raymond Fox’s empathetic Legionnaire, Helen Young’s direction of this work is ambitious. Like the original production, this show is not willing to hold itself or its message back. We cannot escape the harms that have already been done to us by the country that claims to stand for freedom for all. We can, however, look to the future for ways to make something from that trauma and difficulty. Regardless of which side of the debate you find yourself on, to keep or abolish the Constitution, this production is sure to leave you wanting to fight on.
TimeLine Theatre Company, 615 West Wellington, timelinetheatre.com, now through July 2. $52.
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