“In the play’s cosmology, the debased politics of narcissism have polluted American life with the aggro-chemicals of overly heightened and disordered emotions. Democracy is a prairie.”
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Gilman’s drama takes audiences on a wayward chase through the pits and peaks of humanity to find the culprit. Like the dwindling prairie land, of which there is only four percent remaining in the U.S., the characters in the play must learn to fight the droughts and fires of life in order to regrow and survive.
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“Gilman lets the thematic interpretations multiply like those wild grasses while limiting the acreage of her plot...’Swing State’ provides an effective, direct, though limited and realist, take on our moment.”
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“All the characters in ‘Swing State’ have suffered setbacks and are still scarred by them, but the play ends on a grace note, with a quiet conversation affirming the idea that for all living things, flora and fauna alike, it is best to let life run its natural course.”
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“One caveat I have is the final scene, a de rigueur resolution after a punishing climax which borders on pat...Gilman comes down solidly for forgiveness and closure. I didn’t entirely buy it tonally and it left a bland aftertaste, but I will admit: if the choice is between giving up or going on, we should arc toward hope.”
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“ ‘Swing State’ is a fascinating look at the lies we tell ourselves and others in order to exist within a modern society that still too often feels like an insular tribe.”
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“At a time when so many younger playwrights are consumed with personal identity issues, Rebecca Gilman takes the long view, daring to wonder if the human species has much of a future. Coming hot on the heels of a summer marked by global weather disasters, the question lingers, and praise be to her for posing it. But climate change is a devilishly difficult subject to put onstage for all sorts of reasons, a problem that Swing State hasn't begun to solve. It's a brave piece, if not an entirely successful one.
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“The play's ending is a little too pat, and Gilman's attempts to bring order to a world in utter disarray doesn't quite ring true. Still, ’Swing State’ shows that human empathy and environmental conscientiousness can take root in places we least expect.”
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