AN OMINOUS AND DISORIENTING THRILLER

A meticulously staged interrogation that
tightens its grip minute by minute

In theater and in life, some risks are worth taking. Others may not be worth the cost. Reality Winner, a U.S. Air Force veteran and a contractor for the National Security Agency, took a risk in May of 2017 when she printed and mailed a highly classified and explosive report that cast doubt on the legitimacy of the 2016 U.S. presidential election due to Russian interference and sent it to a news outlet. The scrappy Apollinaire Theatre Company of Chelsea has likewise taken a risk in mounting Is This a Room during a season when most other theater companies are producing variations on Dickens or other holiday-themed productions. Is This a Room, an innovative psycho-political thriller by Tina Satter (concept and original direction), has nothing to do with holiday cheer and everything to do with an individual who has taken a tremendous risk, arguably on behalf of her country. Determining if these choices, whether by Winner or the Apollinaire, were worth the risk must be left to Winner herself and the theatergoing audience.

Cristhian Mancinas-Garcia (Special Agent R. Wallace Taylor),
Bradley Belanger (Unknown Male), Brooks Reeves (Special Agent Justin C. Garrick),
Parker Jennings (Reality Leigh Winner)

Satter’s entire script consists of the redacted transcript of the FBI’s June 2017 questioning of Winner. Parker Jennings portrays Reality Winner; Brooks Reeves and Cristhian Mancinas-Garcia play FBI agents Justin C. Garrick and R. Wallace Taylor, respectively. Together, the trio conveys the atmosphere of an FBI interrogation as it veers from chummy banter with just a hint of danger to the moment when Winner realizes she is about to be arrested. The agents repeatedly tell Winner, who they accost as she arrives home from grocery shopping, that they have a warrant. Despite this implied threat, they attempt to establish false camaraderie by discussing their shared love of dogs, workout routines and related injuries, and their mutual weapons collections. Jennings, a young woman dressed only in shorts and surrounded by armed men (Bradley Belanger lurks in the background as an unnamed agent), transitions from a confident military veteran comfortable with the jargon and routines of a security contractor to a helpless victim caught in the maw of a powerful system. By the end of the play, Winner recognizes that her own fate is sealed. Her only remaining concern is the welfare of her foster dog and her cat.

Cristhian Mancinas-Garcia, Parker Jennings

The play reeks of foreboding, well captured in director Danielle Fauteux Jacques’ lighting design and Joseph Lark-Riley’s spare scenic and ominous sound design. The stage is virtually bare, with the exception of a menacing cage, presumably meant for a large dog, which functions as a metaphor for Winner’s fate. The set is also an accurate representation of Winner’s unconventional lifestyle. A yoga instructor and an animal lover, she has little in the way of furniture. All the characters are on their feet for the entire interview, adding to the fraught atmosphere.

The redacted portions of the transcript are conveyed through sound and lighting effects that add to the sense of growing threat. The characters appear to speak, but the audience can’t hear what they are saying or see them clearly. These episodes sometimes last just a moment (as when Winner provides her Social Security number). Other times they continue for longer periods, as the questioning gets into the content of the material Winner leaked. Elements of sound design, such as the barking of Winner’s dog, exiled to the backyard, and (military?) aircraft passing overhead, add to the tension and sense of menace.

Parker Jennings, Brooks Reeves, Cristhian Mancinas-Garcia

Jennings is so convincing as Winner proclaiming her innocence that I wondered whether this was going to be a play about a wrongful conviction. Reeves and Mancinas-Garcia are equally convincing as FBI agents who initially exude sympathy for Winner but whose relentless poking and prodding eventually pushes her into the metaphorical cage that forces a confession.

The minimalist set, the use of light and sound effects to represent redactions, and the powerful performances all contribute to 75 intermission-free minutes that raise questions about the ability of individuals to take principled action or withstand the power of the security apparatus. These questions, as well as the emotional experience of witnessing such an interrogation, make the risk behind the Apollinaire’s tense and disorienting psychological drama worthwhile and illuminating. Only Reality Winner, who received a 63-month federal sentence and continues to face legal restrictions on what she can say about her case, knows whether the risk she took—arguably on behalf of the public good—was ultimately worth the cost.

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photos by Danielle Fauteux Jacques

Is This a Room
Apollinaire Theatre Company
Chelsea Theatre Works, 189 Winnisimmet St in Chelsea, MA
75 minutes, no intermission
Fri and Sat at 8; Sun at 3
ends on January 18, 2025
for tickets ($15-$30), call 617.887.2336 or visit Apollinaire

for more shows, visit Theatre in Boston

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Lynne Weiss is a member of the Boston Theater Critics Association. Her work has also appeared in Literary Ladies Guide and in The Common, Black Warrior Review, and the Ploughshares Blog. She has an MFA from UMass Amherst and has received residencies from Yaddo, the Millay Colony, and Vermont Studio Center and grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. A lifelong social justice activist, she is at work on a novel set in 1930s Cornwall. Her reviews, travel tales, and progressively optimistic opinions are on her substack.