Is This A Room is a stark and striking new work of documentary theater.
A real-life drama upon a topical Russian influence theme, complete with a nice whistleblower at its center, Is This A Room opened on Monday at the Vineyard Theatre.
Smartly devised and directed by Tina Satter, the production derives its power by gradually disclosing information over 80 minutes of real time. Let’s try to be as minimal as this show in assessing it.
Perhaps all that needs mentioning is how Is This A Room centers upon Reality Winner, a young Air Force veteran convicted of leaking to the press classified evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 elections. She currently sits in prison on a five-year sentence under the Espionage Act.
The text used for Is This A Room is a word-for-word transcript of a recording made at Winner’s home when the FBI first showed up on June 3, 2017.
Emily Davis characterizes Winner as an awkward, obviously wary, woman in her mid-20s who has just returned from the market to her rental home in rural Georgia, to be greeted nicely in the front yard by FBI agents. They have a warrant to search her house, car, and devices.
Agent Garrick (Pete Simpson) is a middle-aged man who pleasantly talks to Winner in a nearly fatherly manner. Agent Taylor (TL Thompson), somewhat younger, proves to be brusque and even aggressive. The other male individual (Becca Blackwell), never identified, wears an FBI flak vest and straps an automatic weapon to one khaki-clad leg.
Initially the conversation between these people is extremely casual and polite. It partly concerns Winner’s dog, who needs to be removed from the house, although the cat can remain on the bed. Some groceries need to be stowed in the fridge. Are there weapons? Where are they kept? Do you know why we are here?
Soon the small talk turns significant as the agents begin to quiz Winner about the handling of classified documents in her job as a translator for a military contractor. The third guy wanders around the premises with a walkie-talkie, interjecting random comments.
Winner is vague and even evasive in her replies, behavior about which Garrick warns her, “I don’t want you to go down the wrong road.” Eventually, slowly, Winner reveals her actions.
Satter stages this actual conversation, as transcribed by the FBI, with a cunning minimalism that heightens its inherent drama.
Dressed in everyday clothes, the actors perform mostly upon a gray walkway of a stage that holds no other distractions. The sound designers at times provide far-off explosions and pulsing noises meant to accent the text. Thomas Dunn’s lighting tints key moments as the dramatic tension increases.
Later, the action warps into slow motion or accelerates; signifying Winner’s changing perceptions as she struggles with mounting anxiety.
Packed with its half-sentences and disfluencies, actual conversation that goes unaltered by a dramatist is challenging for actors to speak easily. Here the ensemble believably talks away in their natural performances. A rawboned figure clad in cutoff jeans and yellow sneakers, Davis sensitively depicts Winner as a smart, goodhearted soul who begins to drown in hot water before your very eyes.
Of course, not everyone will be sympathetic to Winner’s story. Others will wonder why Winner remains in prison today. And some viewers will prefer a more conclusive ending, although existence is seldom so tidy. Regardless, Is This A Room packs a sharp slice of real life that gives audiences something current and substantial to chew over afterwards.
Is This a Room opened October 21, 2019, at the Vineyard Theater and runs through November 10. Tickets and information: vineyardtheatre.org
