Tag Archives: Tammy Ryan

Hurricane Colleen

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Aquarium Starfish

Another day, another night, another play and this time the show was part of The Rep series, Ignite! Actually, more of a reading than a performance, this festival features new scripts out loud. Like the night before, this event was also in Grand Center, around the block from the Fox, at KWMU, the local NPR affiliate.

“Hurricane Colleen” was written by Tammy Ryan. Her previous work, “Molly’s Hammer”, was also an Ignite! reading, before graduating to The Rep stage. That play told the story of Molly Rush of the Ploughshares Eight and the events surrounding the 1980 attack on nuclear missile nose cones at the GE plant, in King of Prussia, PA. Since, we had attended both of those venues and with this evening that made us official Tammy Ryan groupies. After this reading, we spoke with Ms. Ryan. Anne was able to mention Carl Hiaasen, whose novels set in south Florida reminded us of Doyle, one of the characters in her current play.

Based upon Ryan’s own life experiences, “Hurricane Colleen” tells the story of two sisters meeting to bury a third. The setting is a beach house in Florida. Four equity actors comprised the cast and portray the two sisters, Maggie and Rosemary Lynch, Doyle, Maggie’s roommate and Ed, Rosemary’s husband. Ed and Rosemary are members of the 1%, while Maggie and Doyle are decidedly not. All of them though, each in their own way, are just barely scraping by. Colleen, the deceased sister, shares titular billing with an approaching hurricane. What could go wrong with a weekend at the beach?

Molly’s Hammer

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Molly's Hammer

Molly’s Hammer

Another day, another play and after this one I’ll be all caught up on the theater. This last Friday, we attended the world opening of a locally produced play, “Molly’s Hammer”, a play by Tammy Ryan, but this is not the first time that we’ve “seen” the play. Last year at this time, we attended a reading of the play as part of the Rep’s Ignite festival. I wrote about that experience and you can read it again here. This is the second play that we’ve seen from that festival to make it into production this year; the other play was “Georama”. Here are that production’s reading and performance blog posts.

Nancy Bell reprises her role as Molly Rush, anti-war protester and Pittsburgh housewife and mother. Last year’s reading was in the Opera Theater rehearsal hall and took place in the afternoon, where it was all airiness and light. The premiere occurred in the Studio Theater, which is a subterranean venue deep within the bowels of the Loretto-Hilton, where it was dark and claustrophobic. We sat in the front row, on the aisle and had to mind the placement of our legs, less we become part of the production, by tripping one of the actors in the dark.

Unlike “Georama”, “Molly’s Hammer” seemed little changed from last year. I think that speaks of the material’s strength, just like only drawing one card instead of three tells of a better poker hand. Having the same actress in the principal role also added to a sense of continuity. Reviewing what I wrote last year, I’d have to say that the biggest difference is in what was left out. The reading had an awful lot of trial strategizing that was shortened for the performance. The dialog seemed crisper too. Maybe it was because this was my second exposure to the material or maybe it was because the play’s politics are now a bit dated, but I was more interested in the story’s family dynamics than in any political message.

Molly’s Hammer

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And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war any more. – Isaiah 2:4

US Holocaust Museum

US Holocaust Museum

On September 9, 1980, the Berrigan brothers, Daniel and Philip, and six others, the “Plowshares Eight”, began the Plowshares Movement under the premise of beating swords to ploughshares. They trespassed onto the General Electric nuclear missile facility in King of Prussia, PA, where they damaged nuclear warhead nose cones and poured blood onto documents and files, as a protest against United States nuclear weapons policy. One of the other six was Molly Rush, a Pittsburgh housewife. “Molly’s Hammer” tells her story surrounding these events.

Saturday afternoon, Anne and I attended the third and final ‘Ignite!’ reading for this year. “Molly’s Hammer” is a play written by Tammy Ryan and is based upon the book, “The Hammer of Justice”, by Lianne Ellison Norman. The play was read by two actors; Nancy Bell read the part of Molly Rush and Dan McCarthy read the part of her husband, Bill Rush and every other character in the play. The play covers the time leading up to the action in King of Prussia, the event and the subsequent legal proceedings. I found the play to be very moving and it will cause me much personal soul-searching in the future.

Molly is a person driven to do what she believes is right, no matter the cost. McCarthy as Dan and all of her other relatives and friends try to talk her out of doing what she is planning, but she will not be dissuaded. After the action, the Plowshares Eight surrender peaceably and go to jail, awaiting trial, where they remain until just before trial, when they finally accept bond. At trial, Molly is looking at sentences of from thirty to sixty years if convicted. Still standing on principle, Molly refuses to adopt a defense that would offer a greater chance of acquittal. Instead, she chooses to put the military-industrial complex on trial, infuriating the judge (McCarthy) and leading to her conviction. In the end though, Bill, her husband, who has fought her every step of the way, stands with her and likewise turns his back to the judge. After ten years of appeals, while still out on bond, the government capitulates and resentenced the Plowshares Eight to probation and time served.

After the reading there is always a Q&A. Seth Gordon always asks two questions: “What do you remember most about the play?” and “What do you think that the play is about?” In the past, even though he says that there are no wrong answers, I have always seemed to have found one. Now I just sit on my hands now and wait for this part to be over and for the wine and cheese to be served. I would say that the most novel answer that I have ever heard in any of these Q&A sessions was one voiced by a mother for her teenage son, “What my son remembers most about the play is when his Uncle Dan said he was pregnant.” McCarthy was portraying Molly’s daughter at the time.

After the Q&A I got to speak with Ryan, the playwright, and for once I asked an intelligent question, “Why did you write this play?” She is also from Pittsburgh and was approached by the author, Norman, to write the play. She interviewed both Molly and Dan Rush, who are both still together and living in Pittsburgh. They are in their eighties now. Molly is still active in the movement, but has never gone to jail again.