March 10, 2025
The Messenger a new play by Jenny Connell Davis is a powerful and important work that needs to be seen by as many people as possible. Told from the perspective of four women in different time periods The Messenger explores the reality of hate and how it endures. Their gender of the characters is in and of itself an important choice Davis makes. We hear these four testimonials play out and while it is being produced at Six Points and three of the four stories do revolve around the holocaust in some way, it is not a play simply about anti semitism. It is about how hate of any kind is given power, how well intentioned or fearful people become complicit in it’s growth.
Davis has the Woman tell us their stories directly because hearing facts is less impactful than hearing someone’s personal story. Facts often leave our minds leaving behind vague impressions of a general topic, but stories create emotional responses and empathy that generates a longer lasting understanding of not just what happened but how it affected the teller. The Messenger powerfully provokes emotional responses to the stories it shares, some of anger, grief, understanding, and inspiration.
Read the full review at The Stages of MN:
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