In Renaissance Theaterworks' 'Rose,' the Chappaquiddick incident tests the Kennedy family matriarch's faith

Talking through her life with an unseen biographer, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy (portrayed by Linda Reiter), mother of a president and senators, defends the differences in how she treated her sons and her daughters.

"I taught them life is a matter of compromises. And it is women who make them."

In Renaissance Theaterworks' new production of Laurence Leamer's one-actor play "Rose," one of America's most prominent Irish Catholic women sounds remarkably like a European queen, powerful yet constrained at the time, clinging above all to a code and a role in the face of tragedies and her husband's infidelities.

Leamer, whose books about this famous family include "The Kennedy Women," tapped many hours of interviews with Rose made by a former biographer as source material for this play.

"Rose" catches her in 1969 at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, about a week after the Chappaquiddick incident, which resulted in the death of automobile passenger Mary Jo Kopechne and unending questions for the driver, Edward (Ted) Kennedy, who would later receive a suspended sentence for leaving the scene of an accident.

On the day of the play, Teddy, as his mother always calls her youngest son, has gone sailing solo but is delayed in returning. Her fear about what may have happened to him (or what he may have done) breaks through her reserve multiple times.

Her inner steel and her observant Catholicism (represented here by Reiter frequently handling rosary beads) have seen her through the assassinations of JFK and Bobby, and the deaths of two other children in airplane accidents. But two things threaten to undo her emotionally: the lobotomy her husband arranged for mentally disabled daughter Rosemary, and Teddy's crisis.

(Rosemary, virtually incapacitated after that operation, would spend most of the rest of her life at the St. Coletta institution in Jefferson, Wisconsin.)

Reiter gives us a flinty Rose, nostalgic in reminiscences about her charming father but honest enough to point out how he blocked her desires. This is a play that hurls a lot of biographical information at the audience, but Reiter's diction and delivery are impeccable and nary a word is lost. Her phone conversations with daughters and daughters-in-law demonstrate how she promulgates the Kennedy way.

Projected images designed by Smooch (John) Medina enhance her stories, as does Josh Schmidt's eerie sound design. Elizabeth Margolius directed this production.

While pre-Vatican II, circle-the-wagons Catholicism has shaped and sometimes warped her life, Rose continues to preach it to others. But she confesses to us, under the influence of Jackie O, that she's now reading Greek tragedy.

Contact Jim Higgins at jim.higgins@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @jhiggy.

If you go

Renaissance Theaterworks performs "Rose" through June 5 at 255 S. Water St. For tickets, visit r-t-w.com or call (414) 278-0765.

Next season

Renaissance Theaterworks plans these shows for its 2022-'23 season, its 30th:

"The How and the Why," Oct. 21-Nov. 13. In Sarah Treem's drama, two women biologists of different generations confer and clash personally and professionally — about the science and meaning of menstruation. 

"Cost of Living," Jan. 20-Feb. 12, 2023. Renaissance collaborates with Pink Umbrella Theater Company and Phamaly Theatre Company on Martyna Majok's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama about the emotional relationships between two people with disabilities and their caregivers. 

"Tidy," March 24-April 6, 2023. Renaissance gives the world premiere of Kristin Idaszak's play, which may appeal to both Marie Kondo lovers and haters.

Renaissance performs at 255 S. Water St. For subscription info, visit r-t-w.com.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: In Renaissance Theaterworks' 'Rose,' Kennedy matriarch faces crisis