Review: 'Queens for a Year' at Hartford Stage

Hartford, CT - The 2016-2017 season at Hartford Stage opens with a world premiere of a play written by T.D. Mitchell entitled ‘Queens for a Year.’ Originally developed as part of the Center Theatre Group’s new play program, the play was featured at the Bay Area Playwrights Festival before receiving a workshop at Hartford Stage in March of last year.

‘Queens for a Year’ tells the riveting story of two women Marines in 2007 that struggle to find justice in a system weighted against them. One is Molly, a young, newly minted officer in the Corps, and the other is Amanda, a young enlisted woman. Together they arrive at the farmhouse of the officer’s grandmother in southern Virginia. Her family proudly boasts five generations of female Marines and four of them gather for what begins as a celebration of women’s history and grit. In flashbacks, it is revealed that their visit is actually a flight from immediate danger that is within the violent, male-entrenched culture that they have all so desperately fought to be a part of.

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I am always struck with the professional level that both plays and musicals attain at Hartford Stage. The look is modern and the productions are consistently seamless, and this piece is no exception. I found the play to be a thoroughly riveting tale that shed a sometimes harsh light on the experience of women in the military.

‘Queens for a Year’ runs through the matinee on October 2, 2016, and the theater offers both open captioned performances and an audio described performance on specific dates.

Nancy Sasso Janis is the newest member of Connecticut Critics Circle.