Sunday is Veteran’s Day. The subjects of war and soldiers have inspired countless works of art, including the play “Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter”, about a soldier recently home from Iraq.
“I think people should come see the play because it’s a play about going home and a play about patriotism and I feel like that its important that regardless on your stance on the war, every American is responsible for the veterans coming home,” Hilary Mosman, who plays the role of Jenny Sutter, said.
In the play, Jenny Sutter is waiting at the airport when she meets a free spirited woman named Lou. Jenny is not quite ready to return home to her family — none of whom know that one of her legs was amputated, so she accompanies Lou to her home in Slab City.
The set of Slab City was completely made out of recycled parts.
“The majority of the play is set in Slab City, which is in the desert of California,” director Robert Caisley said. “It is a place for displaced people that have no homes. Their homes are constructed by whatever they can get their hands on. It’s not like a shanty town like one would suspect — some of these places are highly decorated with what we would call junk.”
The play opens in an airport that is covered by an enormous flag. When the play transitions to Slab City, massive towers containing everything from wine glasses to chaotic stacks of books gives character to the odd town.
Jeremy Thompson, who played Donald, kept his character’s hunched posture throughout the play — portraying a disability.
Additionally, Mosman moved around the stage and on and off the ground several times, all while portraying an amputee.
“I wear a brace in the show and that helps me a lot, but for the last couple weeks I have been isolating the entire leg,” Mosman said. “The hardest part was getting on and off the ground so many times.”
“Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter” has been in production since the beginning of the fall semester.
Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter will be preformed at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 9-10 and at 2 p.m. Nov.11 in the Hartung Theater. Tickets for the show are free for Veterans and UI students with a Vandal Card.
Visit www.uidaho.edu/class/theatre/productions/welcome-home-jenny-sutter for more information.
Aleya Ericson can be reached at [email protected]
ui department of theatre arts | courtesy
University of Idaho Department of Theatre Arts students (left to right) Jeremy Thompson (“Donald”), Hillary Mosman (“Jenny”) and Margaret Miller (“Lou”) act out a scene in Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter by Julie Marie Myatt.