Daughter grapples with dying father in ‘Scarecow’
Two themes wrestle in Heidi Armbruster’s oneactor play “Scarecrow,” which is alternately and unpredictably funny and poignant in exactly the ways you’d like a good eulogy to be.
There’s the impending loss of the most important person in her life, her father, as he dies from cancer. And there’s her coming to terms with her yearning for his validation of her life choices.
Next Act Theatre opened a new production of Wisconsin native Armbruster’s show Friday evening, directed by Laura Gordon. Armbruster is a graduate of Waunakee Community High School and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her dad’s farm, the site of some of the play’s action, was outside of Lodi in Columbia County.
In a recent interview, Armbruster said her play’s about 80% autobiographical, though that’s changing as she continues to develop it. So to avoid making false assumptions, I’ll refer to the actor herself as Armbruster and her play’s character as Heidi.
Armbruster brings multiple characters alive (a few of them with killer Wisconsin accents). These include Heidi’s father, stubborn and opinionated even as he gradually shrinks to death from his disease. Heidi adores him, but he’s uncomfortable with her emotions and with his own. He’s also critical of his actor-playwright daughter’s unconventionality, introducing Heidi to one nurse as “not married, no kids, and she doesn’t have a job.”
As she wanders around the hospital, drinking the fancy fake hot chocolate only available to families on the cancer ward, Heidi occasionally bursts into fantasies of Hallmark movies she could be cast in, including one about a meet-cute with Sexy Cancer Dude and another involving a strangely Teutonic fertility clinic. These entertaining scenes engage her anxieties about her career as well as provide safety valves for emotions that have nowhere else to go.
It’s easy to see why both Heidi and Armbruster regularly get cast as moms: wholesome looks, ingratiating manner, and a knack for not saying the mean thing that first comes to her mind (though she is happy to share that privately with us).
“Scarecrow” also has several set pieces where the actor and writer work together in vivid depiction of action, including Heidi’s breathtaking account of compulsively riding a Universal Studios roller coaster over and over as she processes her father’s death.
Armbruster, who performed in two Milwaukee Repertory Theater productions last season, is living in Milwaukee for the time being. But a Hallmark Channel casting director could be punching her number right now. So go see a homegrown talent in a very personal show while you can.