Milwaukee ATF sting inspires play ‘To Catch a Fish’
Production in Chicago runs through July 1
The bizarre case of an ATF sting in Milwaukee that used a man with brain damage to set up gun and drug deals has inspired a new play in Chicago.
Chicago’s TimeLine Theatre is performing “To Catch a Fish” through July 1. Playwright Brett Neveu, director Ron OJ Parson and other members of the creative team visited Milwaukee to research locations and speak with Journal Sentinel reporters John Diedrich and Raquel Rutledge, who broke the ATF story in 2013.
After setting up an undercover storefront in Riverwest in 2012, the ATF’s “Operation Fearless” used Chauncey Wright, who has a mental disability and an IQ in the 50s, to pass out promotional fliers to entice customers. Then, after shutting down the operation, Wright was charged with federal drug and gun counts. He was sentenced to six months of house arrest and subsequent probation.
When this came to light, advocates for people with disabilities and public officials were outraged.
In 2016, an Office of the Inspector General investigation found that the government “failed to apply” a 1973 anti-discrimination law in this and other sting cases.
Neveu has dramatized and fictionalized the story, placing a mentally disabled man, named Terry Kilbourn in the play, and his family at its center. In a review of “To Catch a Fish,” Chicago critic Lawrence Bommer called it “an invaluable anomaly … it’s more interested in the sufferers of a scam than the reasons for wrongdoing.”
“In the center of this is, how do we behave as humans to each other when a lot is at stake?” Neveu said in a telephone interview. “The big question for a number of the characters (is), who am I and why am I doing what I’m doing?”
During his research trip to Milwaukee, Neveu met Wright, his family and his attorney. “He was an incredibly sweet guy, wonderful to be around,” Neveu said.
Wright had no agenda, the playwright
said. “He was just himself. He wanted to show me some pictures of some fish he caught and tell me about his life a bit.”
Parson, the director, has Milwaukee theater street cred: He’s directed both “A Raisin in the Sun” and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater.
“To Catch a Fish” has a strong Milwaukee flavor. In some scenes, actors wear Milwaukee Bucks and Bryant’s Cocktail Lounge shirts. Neveu said he pulled the last names of characters, such as Kilbourn, from Milwaukee street names and history. One wall of the TimeLine Theatre lobby display for this show is devoted to photos and information about the cast and creative team’s visit here.
But the takeaway Neveu offers is not unique to our city. Noting that federal sting operations have used people with mental disabilities in other places, too, Neveu echoed the words of a character from his play: “We need to stop this from happening again and again and again.”
Founded in 1997, TimeLine Theatre’s stated mission is to present “stories inspired by history that connect with today’s social and political issues.”