Most Americans have a general idea about the importance of the U.S. Constitution. The latest production from Portland Stage finds an engrossing way to go a little deeper into some of the details of that document as well as some of the controversial interpretations it has endured.

Heidi Schreck’s 2017 play “What the Constitution Means to Me” introduces Heidi, a character based on and originally performed by the author. The play toggles between Heidi as a 15-year-old in 1987 and as her later, middle-aged self, both played here by Abigail Killeen.

The Constitution’s strengths and weaknesses, particularly regarding minority and women’s rights, are highlighted in this illuminating piece of theater directed by Todd Brian Backus. The play prompts both anger and optimism (with a few good laughs mixed in) in its 90-minute run time.

Heidi mostly addresses the audience directly about an early interest in the Constitution that led her to participate in American Legion-sponsored debates. Offering a few examples of her skill, it becomes easy to see why she often won, earning prize money to finance her higher education.

The older Heidi’s talk turns serious as unsettling reflections on her own and other’s experiences of discrimination and violence color her original enthusiasm for a document authored by and, until only recently, exclusively interpreted by men.

Is the play a civics lesson wrapped in personal drama or vice versa? The point is you really can’t have one without the other, especially when the law drops in, sometimes uninvited, to rule on issues regarding marriage, family, race, sex, gender, employment, education, etc.

Theater veteran and educator Killeen is excellent at weaving, with a sense of urgency, some very intimate details of Heidi’s personal life into her view of Constitutional history. Adult emotional trauma and remembered youthful idealism coexist in her riveting performance.

Matthew Delamater plays a Legionnaire master of ceremonies who attempts to apply a military-style discipline to contestants who are prone to go off on rhetorical tangents. Delamater later gets to break free of that character and expose some emotional details of the actor we then see. Though theatrically convenient, these character switches do give the playgoer a bit of a workout as to what level of artifice is being represented at any point.

A final sequence has Killeen debating Vagni Das, a precocious local teenager (one of five who will alternate during the run of the show). With Delamater acting as cheerleader, the pair take sides on whether to scrap or save the Constitution. An audience member is selected to act as debate judge.

A diorama set of a Legion Hall, designed by Anita Stewart, adds a sort of memory box from which Heidi can step away to become her older self. The playing of recorded excerpts from Supreme Court debates adds the requisite ironic humor to a relatively small play that nonetheless artfully addresses some very big questions.

Steve Feeney is a freelance writer who lives in Portland.

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