Show adds steam to Stennis’ life, once again (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Tuesday, March 13, 2001

A touring production of "A Gentleman from Mississippi” visiting the Brumder Mansion this month is an interwoven mass of stories that gradually unravels like a ball of twine.

It's a one-man show about the life and times of John C. Stennis, a Democratic senator from Mississippi (1947-'89). He became famous for first supporting and then questioning presidential military power during the Vietnam War, opposing the desegregation of public schools and challenging the tactics of Sen. Joseph McCarthy.

Actor David Dallas drew on personal experience for the play.

Dallas, a Mississippi State graduate, was a caregiver for Stennis for a couple of years after he retired from the Senate.

"A Gentleman from Mississippi" isn't really about the senator's claims to fame (or infamy) so much as it is a first-person recreation of Dallas' time with the wheelchair-bound Stennis.

Dallas is an adept storyteller telling stories about a storyteller telling stories. And both — storytellers 'and stories — are wonderful.

The actor's performance is charismatic, articulate and marked by a terrific sense of humor.

He leaps back and forth between the two characters he portrays (the narrator and Stennis) with the same ease with which he slides in and out of the play’s setting, a lone wheelchair.

One-person productions have great potential for monotony, but Dallas breaks up the play.

He adds sound bites between bits, and changes characters often.

Sometimes he’s the young Stennis, speaking before the Senate with horn-rimmed glasses and a distinct Southern drawl in his oratory.

Sometimes he’s the crotchety, retired Stennis, with a blanket on his lap and a rambling, reminiscent style.

Still other times, he is himself, describing his adventures with Stennis and providing historical background to set the stage for Stennis’ stories.

The stories that make up the body of the play are treasures.

They provide a different perspective on the America of the 1950s and ‘60s, and bring the audience close to major figures of the times (i.e. McCarthy, the Kennedy “boys,” Lyndon B. Johnson).

The setting couldn’t have been more perfect.

The Brumder Mansion, like Stennis, is a minor monument with an interesting history. Located on N. 30th St. and W. Wisconsin Ave., it is one of many huge homes built on the onetime Grand Ave.

Now a bed-and-breakfast, the mansion’s basement theater is a good-size space, yet small enough to be comfortable.

A fire burned on one side of the room throughout the production, the perfect accompaniment to what is essentially an immensely funny and touching fireside chat.

Written by Willy Thorn, Special to the Journal Sentinel