Playwright and traveler Mat Smart has been to all 50 states, and there’s one thing he’s noticed: We don’t talk to each other anymore.
“Frankly, how divided we are concerns me,” Smart says. “I was interested in writing a play that explored a time when there was similar divisiveness to understand how we worked through it. I’m interested in using 1971 as a flashpoint to engage with that moment in history, but also as a lens for us to view today.”
Smart’s desire to spark contemporary political conversations in a historical setting was channeled into his Vietnam War-era play Eden Prairie, 1971, which is currently being produced at the Dairy Arts Center by the Butterfly Effect Theatre Company of Colorado (BETC) through April 29.
“People living in our political moment feel like our nation has never been more divided, but they should look at this period,” says director and BETC Associate Artistic Director Heather Beasley. “Mat places us on a historic day and uses the Vietnam War as a backdrop for the piece. History is most accessible when we view it through people’s stories, and we care about the people who lived through it. This story is a beautiful, detailed look at how it impacted three people’s lives.”
The play is set at midnight in rural Minnesota on the night of the Apollo 15 moon landing, as a “draft dodger” returns to visit a woman from his past. But rather than present an overly moralistic love story, Smart set out to create a play with characters who had vastly different values.
“It was important to give everyone’s viewpoint a fair representation,” Smart says. “Theater can fall into the trap of preaching to the choir, so I like to shake things up and bring in different ideas. We have Pete [James Giordano], who is against the war and going to fight, and Rachel [Kate Hebert] on the other end of the spectrum. … And her mom [Adrian Egolf] presents a third way of being that doesn’t fit neatly into liberal or conservative categories.”
Eden Prairie gives audiences the chance to watch these old friends go toe-to-toe in heated debates as the single-setting play’s 90-minute duration unfolds in real time.
“At one point, they argue about the 1968 presidential election and about how Richard Nixon beat Hubert Humphrey by less than .7 points,” says Smart. “Close elections resonate today because we are used to these razor-thin margins; it is nothing new that elections are so close, but it is fun to have that argument through the lens of history.”
‘A fitting capstone’
The play’s Boulder debut is a history-making event itself as the final production of Eden Prairie’s rolling world premiere with the National New Play Network. BETC is the last of three theater companies co-debuting the work in the United States, after Riverside Theatre of Iowa and the New Jersey Repertory Company.
“I had seen Mat’s play Midwinter at the Colorado New Play Summit, and I loved it, so I requested to read his new script because I liked his work,” Beasley says. “There are some plays that I have to share immediately; Eden Prairie, 1971, was one of the plays we all agreed quickly was a wonderful fit for [BETC].”
The play’s script arrives in Boulder with new edits from Smart, who — having seen it performed by two other companies — incorporated feedback from previous production teams, casts and audiences.
“The structure hasn’t changed, so it has really been like going down the elevator deeper into the mine shaft,” Smart says. “I am always trying to find great depth in the play. I feel like [after the two other premieres], the characters are more complicated and the moments cut more.”
In addition to being the play’s final premiere, the Boulder run of Eden Prairie also serves as the last production for BETC co-founders Stephen Weitz and Rebecca Remaly before the husband-and-wife team departs from their leadership positions at the end of the 2022-2023 season.
“Eden Prairie, 1971, is a fitting capstone to what’s been an exciting and diverse season,” Weitz says. “I couldn’t be more delighted that we’re finishing with the world premiere of a new American play that will touch audience members’ hearts and souls and brains in equal measure. That’s the definition of a BETC play.”
ON STAGE: Eden Prairie, 1971 by Mat Smart. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. through April 29, Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. Tickets here.
