No one expected Annie Sullivan to succeed, but she did when she taught deaf, blind and mute Helen Keller to communicate. The Montana Repertory Theater told the inspiring story of “The Miracle Worker” at Ramsey Theater last Thursday.

At the heart of “The Miracle Worker” is the story of a family coping with a child with disabilities.

Keller could not speak, see or hear; she had no way to communicate with her family and they had no way to reach her. This caused her parents, aunt and brother to walk on eggshells around her. The majority of the play takes place when Keller is child. Most children that age throw temper tantrums, and Keller was no exception. The Keller house was a chaotic one.

Sullivan, who was once blind and just out of school, was hired to move from Boston to Alabama in a last ditch effort to teach Keller to communicate. From the beginning, Sullivan was a fish out of water.

When her family saw Helen, they saw a poor, mentally challenged girl with no hope for a normal life. Sullivan saw something completely different. She saw a smart child who simply lacked obedience.

The biggest obstacle to Keller’s learning was not her disability, but her family’s reaction to it.

Instead of trying to discipline Keller’s tantrums, her parents simply let her do whatever she wanted.
Sullivan taught them that patience and persistence was the answer. Once they stopped seeing her as someone to be pitied, her tantrums no longer controlled the house, and in turn, her disabilities no longer ran Keller’s life.

The Montana Repertory Theater put on a stunning production of “The Miracle Worker.”

At first glance, the set looked too minimal with only a desk, table and bed. However, director Bernadette Sweeney made up for that by creative use of a projection screen.

It was used to show exterior scenes, flashbacks to Sullivan’s childhood and most importantly, how Keller was learning.

In order to teach Keller that everything had a name, Sullivan would have Keller hold out her hand while she used sign language to spell so she could feel and learn. Sullivan then had Keller repeat the sign. During those scenes, images of hands gave the audience a view of Sullivan’s teachings.

The scant set and projection screen was just interesting enough to insure that nothing pulled focus from the performances of the actors.

Caitlin McRae played the title character, Annie Sullivan. She did a superb job playing the headstrong teacher.

Jim Gall and Nick Pavelich, who played Keller’s father and brother respectively, kept the two-hour long play from being too heavy. They were the subtle comic relief in the dramatic story told by spectacular performances from all of the Montana Repertory Theater’s actors.