Returning Home

press release: Wilder Theater announces “Returning Home”, a Play for and about Combat Veterans

On the last two weekends of August, Wilder Theater will produce “Returning Home” at the Bartell Theater, 113 East Mifflin Street in Madison.  

Returning Home is a short full-length play (approximately 100 minutes without intermission) that describes the difficulties faced by veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars in reintegrating into families, work and society, and the difficulties of their families in adjusting to them.  The work is directed by Darby Fitzsimons and written by local playwright Nick Schweitzer, who created the Madison sesquicentennial play, “Surrounded by Reality”, in 2006, and “Fighting Bob: A Love Story” about Bob and Belle La Follette, in 1998.  It is based on interviews conducted by the author with veterans and family members in Austin, Texas in the fall of 2011, as well as group therapy sessions he was allowed to observe.  The play grew out of an earlier work about Vietnam-era veterans, “The Tragedy of Achilles in Vietnam”, which was produced in Austin in 2009.

Performances will be on August 19, 20, 25, 26 and 27 at 7:00 p.m. and August 21 at 2:00 p.m. Parental discretion is advised for profanity and hints of violence and sex.

The play will be publicized through the William S. Middleton Veterans Hospital, the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs, and other organizations serving veterans. All performances will be followed by audience discussion. Admission is $20 for those who can afford it, free for those who can’t.