On the Exhale: Breathtaking, Liberating

Emily Vitrano, courtesy of Jake Badovski.

How do you reconcile the horrors of gun violence? For one mother, the answers do not lie in the victims or their families, but in the cold, magnetic power of the weapon itself. Vanguard Milwaukee takes us on a harrowing one-woman journey through grief in On the Exhale, directed by Annika Perez-Krikorian and starring Emily Vitrano. The production runs this weekend only, performing a final Pay What You Will performance on October 12th.

Emily Vitrano is a force of nature. Her performance is so grounded in the present moment that the unbroken run time passes in an instant, but by its completion, it feels we have known her character for an eternity. She steps into the space with a delicately balanced dichotomy of reverence for the seriousness of school shootings and sardonic humor for the nonsensical quality of this form of terror. It feels raw in a way that breaks through the media noise and holds an unforgiving mirror to the darkest thoughts left unspoken by those of us who bear witness.

The production quality in the piece is perfectly invisible - each element draws attention more closely to Vitrano without any sense of ego calling attention to itself. Elliott Brotherhood's sound design pulls us back and forth between liminal space and grounded realism, like a refocusing of the eyes. Subtle shifts in costuming, by Cassie Gheradini, reframe Vitrano as teacher, then mother, then weapon. Lighting by Antishadows acts as a vessel for the subtext of each heartbeat, building and releasing tension as relentless waves of anger and resignation crash against one another and dissipate into the space. Each element is woven seamlessly under the careful direction of Perez-Krikorian and effectively uplifts the story without obscuring the necessary trajectory of the piece.

Martín Zimmerman's script is as nuanced and discomforting as grief itself. For each turn where the answers to the immeasurable rage and loss surrounding a school shooting seem simple, Zimmerman pivots. The effect will disquiet both 2nd Amendment loyalists and passionate gun reform advocates as it forces you to look inward at the impulses and obsessions that make each of us equally human and capable of harm.

In only a few short years, Vanguard Milwaukee has grown from the host of the annual production of All is Calm and into a reputation for poignant and thought-provoking seasons. Their trajectory is nothing short of impressive and something to be watched in the Milwaukee theatre scene. On the Exhale is both confronting and vindicating, and not to be missed.