Strange people overrun the unnamed town in Bad Things Theatre’s production of But We’re Right. Two friends, young women on the cusp of launching their adult lives, fret that these people look different, and that they don’t know them. One of the women views the influx as a call to defend her homeland in the name of patriotism, while the other is more diffident, just wanting things to stay the same. Their town, however, is in the midst of irrevocable change, and, with it, their lives.
The style of this production, directed by Morghan Welt, hovers intriguingly between naturalistic presentation and more boldly mythic strokes. The young women’s friendship is delineated in snappy fast-burst dialogue that reaches beyond realism to define their relationship with both efficiency and elegance.
In an otherwise bare set, a single ladder effectively evokes the up-and-down and mostly gentle conflicts of the friends, becomes a bench where they part, a police barricade, and more. The other prop, a child’s ball, is used to devastating effect. Kate Brosnan and Molly Murphy Hazzard are natural and believable in their roles, with Hazzard carefully balancing tempestuousness with an underlying decency that serves to keep their character from becoming one-dimensional.
But We’re Right is a political production with a particular message. It therefore has to navigate the rocks on which many such didactic theatre pieces founder: portraying its characters as fully realised people rather than as straw figures representing particular positions, and challenging the audience to consider its point of view rather than haranguing them. It’s difficult to pull off, and But We’re Right manages it impressively.
These considerable successes make it all the more frustrating that a pivotal plot point late in the play is not grounded in anything that precedes it. It’s such a jarring departure that it upends the narrative and robs the conclusion of impact.
But We’re Right is close to excellence, with only this single — but unfortunately crucial — structural element out of place. It’s a testament to just how well everything else works that this play is worth seeing regardless, and I look forward to future productions from this young and capable company.
