On the evening of Sept. 18, Middlebury’s own Beyond The Page presented the original play “The Strangers’ Case,” a tender and personal reflection on migration, strangerhood and home. The play was put on by a five-person rotating cast and took inspiration from the speech by the same name, largely attributed to William Shakespeare’s “Sir Thomas More.”
Upon entering the theater Wednesday night, one felt as if the tone had already been set. Two rows of chairs were arranged in a semi-circle in front of the stage and audience members were encouraged to fill the forward-most seats first. In the space left in the center, a folding table sat with snacks arranged atop, which drew spectators and players alike in the twenty minutes leading up to the show. In this intimate, familiar atmosphere, the line between the audience and the actors blurred. What was coming depended on more than the typical ‘audience-participation’ expectations, and in fact, already had.
The play was devised following a community workshop held on Sept. 11. in which Beyond The Page invited participants to share their experiences and perspectives on topics like homecoming and dislocation, familiarity and strangeness. These contributions thematically and textually informed the resulting piece — at various times, actors would read aloud direct quotes transcribed from the workshop from their scripts, which were on hand for the duration of the performance. These sections were mainly penned by NYCS-based actor Haley Schwartz.
“Largely we found that the community material spoke for itself. We also made a conscious decision not to overwhelm the show with tales about migration, home, and strangerhood that didn't come up during the workshop. Those themes are extremely broad and ever relevant, and we wanted to honor them by being as specific and true to the community as possible,” Maddison Middleton ’22.5 said. A show of hands after the show revealed that around half of the audience had participated in the workshop the week prior.
On the night of the performance, Craig Maravich, program director for Beyond The Page, provided some preamble to the performance and introduced his fellow actors including Middleton, Schwartz and Shelley Fort. Then, actor and lead playwright Louis Reyes McWilliams discussed the titular speech that served as the performance’s basis. The speech references the London riot of 1517 — known as Evil May Day — and denounces the rioters for their violence and hostility towards the immigrants in the urban fabric. It beseeches the rioters to consider how they would feel, were they ever to become ‘strangers’ themselves, cast by circumstance onto an unknown shore: “Would you be pleased / To find a nation of such barbarous temper, / That, breaking out in hideous violence, / Would not afford you an abode on earth.”
Just before the show was to begin — in a move that felt somewhat ominous — the house lights were turned up, illuminating the audience and the stage together. And when Maravich began to recite the titular speech, he was interrupted after only a few lines by Middleton. Middleton’s portrayal of a disoriented newcomer signaled the real start of the show. As Middleton recalled vague but poignant memories of a life they seemed to have left behind — including exclamations of “ancestors”, “a tune on the wind”, “food! looking for food,” and “a TJ Maxx!” — an understanding grew between them and Maravich.
In the next couple of scenes, a rhetorical shift occurred when Maravich, offering shelter and sustenance to Middleton, took on the literal role of “Dad.” The two navigated the unique connection between a parent and child who evade each other in fundamental ways. Years passed and Middleton grew old enough to set out on their own, accepting their father’s wisdom that while home would always be there, coming back would never be the same once they’d left.
Scenes later, a grown-up Middleton returned to find their father lonely, scared and suffering from memory loss. In the time that had passed, the two had been rendered strangers to each other once more.
As the show proceeded, a few central motifs and stylistic embellishments emerged and helped to situate the audience within the piece. Scene transitions and stage directions were read aloud by an actor and the storyline was regularly paused to engage the audience in filling in the sentences, “I arrived here by way of…” and “I know I’m home when…”
One of the most visually thrilling parts of the performance was the multi-person “creature” that formed on stage, snarling and growling and whining and rolling about, representing the fear sometimes conjured during an encounter with a ‘stranger.’ Strangeness, it proffered, was a universal symptom of relationships, not a personal condition. It could be altered, eradicated, by simple acts of compassion and kindness.
Another notable moment was an absurdist and seemingly improvised dance sequence to “People Are Strange” by The Doors. “I loved getting to see people enjoy being strange,” said one audience member in the feedback session after the show.
The play was beautifully written and deeply profound, rife with both emotional, tender moments and wide-ranging comical relief. Every acting performance was superb and fully-embodied; the cast managed to establish an intense sense of trust with their audience. It served as a refreshingly non-topical reminder that, by virtue of each being strangers, none of us are truly alone.
