In an environmentally dystopian world, which option is the better choice: going back to simpler ways to allow the planet to slowly heal itself, or exploring another planet with the goal of colonizing it and starting over? This is the question that playwright Amy Berryman explores in her play Walden, being given its first New Jersey production by Premiere Stages at Kean University.
In Walden, Berryman postulates a world gone mad. The air is unbreathable, with filtration masks required for those going outside. The latest climate disaster is a giant tsunami which has killed over a million people along the eastern seaboard. Agriculture is all but impossible. A pair of adult twin sisters, Stella and Cassiopeia (Cassie), daughters of an astronaut and raised to be astronauts, have taken different life paths. Cassie, who has discovered a way to grow plants at NASA’s moon base, is preparing to go on a mission to set up a self-sustaining base on Mars. Stella, who washed out of the astronaut program, has found a measure of contentment with her partner Bryan in an enclave that is slowly reviving a formerly dying area of the country. The enclave, run by a group calling itself Earth Activists, has breathable air, reviving agriculture, and even returning groups of animal life, but has rejected using many energy-consuming devices. Bryan has compromised some of his EA beliefs for Stella by having a radio, stove, and refrigerator in their house and driving an electric car.
The Mars base, designed by Stella before leaving NASA and designated “Walden”, is meant to be a prototype for Martian colonization — a second chance for Earthlings to start over. Cassie has come to visit Stella and convince her to join the Mars mission as an Earth-based specialist, even offering Stella a formal NASA invitation to return. For all her resentment with NASA, Stella is tempted to return, even as Cassie gains an understanding and appreciation of the promise for rejuvenation offered by the EA enclave. And Cassie has an ulterior motive: she will never be returning to Earth after leaving for Mars and wants to regain the closeness she once had with Stella by having her join the project.
Walden is beautifully written, with three strong characters poised in a delicate and shifting balance. The audience can feel the attractions of both Cassie’s appeal to sisterly bonds and belief in mankind’s survival on other worlds, and Bryan’s strong devotion to healing the planet by going back to simpler ways of living yet willing to compromise some beliefs for his partner. Stella, pulled between her past ambitions and her present life and between two people who both love her, has to make the difficult choice between them.
Director Charlotte Cohn skillfully guides her cast in maintaining the tensions of the delicate balancing act that is Walden. As the twin sisters, Allison Altman (Stella) and Erin Germaine Mahoney (Cassie) paint a portrait of two women whose shared past affects their present actions and beliefs. They may be at odds, but Altman and Mahoney convincingly portray the deep bonds of affection they still share. In their interactions, they nail the impression that they have known each other their entire lives. As Stella’s partner Bryan, Anthony Vaughn Merchant is a tower of quiet strength, supportively caring for Stella and attentive to her needs. Yet he is a sympathetic listener for Cassie as she expresses her desire to explore space and her need to connect with Stella before undertaking her mission.
David M. Barber’s expansive set of Bryan and Stella’s cabin and backyard allows the actors room to move, breathe, and argue. The atmospheric lighting of Zack George, including lovely sky and full moon effects, and the sound design by Chad Raines both add layers in creating a realistic refuge from the spent Earth.
I had the privilege of seeing Walden last year at New York’s Second Stage Theater. While the set there was more imaginative in creating the world of the play, the acting and directing in Premiere Stages’ production is, I think, superior. Walden may be set in a dystopian future, but it is striking in giving us three characters who, though taking opposing viewpoints, are all united in their ultimate hope for the future of mankind. I cannot more strongly urge you to make the trip to Kean University in Union to immerse yourselves in the world of Walden.
Walden is presented by Premiere Stages in the Bauer Boucher Theatre Center at Kean University in Union through Sept. 21, 2025. For more information or to purchase tickets, go to premierestagesatkean.com.
