‘In To America’ posts mixed messages from a nation of immigrants

On several pages of the playbill for “In To America” — Bill Massolia’s clearly timely and thought-provoking world premiere production for the Griffin Theatre Company — you will find an expertly rendered “Timeline of U.S. Policy on Immigration.”

It begins with an entry for 1790, when “Congress adopted uniform rules so that any free white person could apply for citizenship after two years of residency.” It concludes with an entry for 2001 when the “USA Patriot Act amended the Immigration and Nationality Act to broaden the scope of aliens ineligible for for admission or deportable due to terrorist activities.”

The theater piece itself takes a far more personal approach to the history of the enduringly fraught issue. In fact, as the teaser for the production tallies it all, “In To America” is comprised of “60 personal immigrant stories representing 30 countries and covering 400 years of history.”

Drawn from letters, diaries, oral histories and biographies, the work — featuring a richly diverse and skillful cast of 13 under the direction of Dorothy Milne — unspools in less than two hours. That is an impressive act of condensation, to say the least, yet the show is unquestionably wide-ranging. And its message rings out loudly and clearly: Immigration, the very life blood of this country from the start, has never been entirely free, fair or easy. And while “hope,” “opportunity” and “freedom” have long been the buzzwords driving it, opportunism, ambivalence, discrimination and cruelty must be appended to that list.

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“In To America” is set in motion with a few bars of “Simple Gifts,” Aaron Copland’s stirring take on a 19th century Shaker song. Then comes the menacing roar of the ocean.

The first immigrant tale is told by a Native-American woman who spins the story of a mythic bird that somehow made it over ice floes and onto the mainland. Only then do we hear from the earliest settlers from England, Germany and elsewhere in Europe, who tell of terrifying ocean crossings and of the starvation, deadly epidemics and loneliness suffered once they got to solid ground. Their attitudes about the native people are formed early and run the gamut — with some hugely grateful for their help, and others describing them in the most despicable racist terms.

Of course the slave trade cannot, in any way, shape or form, be considered a form of immigration, but that Middle Passage nightmare, and what happened to the Africans brought here against their will and beyond their comprehension, is dealt with in vivid terms.

Massolia also reminds us that many poor young white men were brought to these shores as indentured servants, suffering under a near slave-like situation that bound them to severely punishing contracts that could last for years.

Not surprisingly, some immigrants were allowed in only when backbreaking labor was needed during times of expansion and growth. The Chinese, for example, were “welcomed” so that they could be put to work on the most perilous, often life-threatening jobs in the construction of the transcontinental railway.

Young Irish women came to work as maids, nannies and laundresses, and later populated the many sweatshops during the country’s industrial growth. Eastern Europeans found their way here, too — many seeking to escape military conscription at home, although little is said about the many Jews who were denied entry during the Holocaust.

There are many tales of the plight of Mexicans in times long before the current era. And we hear the testimony of the Vietnamese and Cambodians whose families made it here after countless stops in refugee camps, of the boy soldiers from eastern Africa who were lucky enough to be brought here by church groups and relief agencies, of Afghans and Syrians escaping more recent conflicts.

Throughout there are stories of the often painful and disorienting process of assimilation, as well as the more humorous aspects of culture shock. There also are enough success stories to buoy the spirit as those who manage to get educations go on to become scientists, artists and educators of note, while others feel fortunate just to be able to make a living and save enough money to bring the rest of their families here.

Uniting the stories are Joe Schermoly’s elegant set (a collage of banners in the shape of sails, lit by Lee Fiskness, and animated by Brock Alter’s archival projections), as well as Rachel Sypniewski’s earth-toned, era-crossing costumes.

Although the stories are impressively varied, and the actors tell them with great spirit and emotional heat (as well as a slew of different accents, a certain rhythmic sameness can set in from time to time. But this is an important show, and Massolia’s balanced, nuanced approach to the subject is an excellent antidote to the shrill temper of our time.