On Saturday night Cathy made me go to a play. Too often this means I grit my way through a musical, lubricating the proceedings as much as discretion allows.
This time, though, she nailed it. We saw the Boise Contemporary Theater's production of "I Have Before Me A Remarkable Document Given To Me By A Young Lady From Rwanda."
The play is about Juliette, a young lady who escaped the war in Rwanda and made her way to London, where she lives in a tiny room and tries to write her story. Simon is a writing tutor who tries to help her and, in the process, himself.
The performances were fantastic, especially the completely captivating Nylda Mark as Juliette. (Richard Klautsch was solid as Simon, but this show was undeniably stolen.) We hung on her every word and gesture, waiting for her terrible story to come pouring out, barely able to stand it as it did. I've never been so heartbroken during a play as when she lit a series of candles and introduced us to her family.
The play dragged into naked light of day the undeniable fact that there is much in the experience of a refugee, especially one driven from home by brutality and war as in Rwanda and The Congo, that someone like me can never hope to understand. It's so far removed from one of the fundamentals of my existence: Safety. Sure no one's ever completely safe, but the difference between my daily life and the life of someone in the midst of that sort of conflict, running from it, losing family and friends, living in a refugee camp, for years and years, it boggles the mind.
Go see this play. It's simple, it's short, there's not even an intermission, and it's brilliantly done.
This time, though, she nailed it. We saw the Boise Contemporary Theater's production of "I Have Before Me A Remarkable Document Given To Me By A Young Lady From Rwanda."
The play is about Juliette, a young lady who escaped the war in Rwanda and made her way to London, where she lives in a tiny room and tries to write her story. Simon is a writing tutor who tries to help her and, in the process, himself.
The performances were fantastic, especially the completely captivating Nylda Mark as Juliette. (Richard Klautsch was solid as Simon, but this show was undeniably stolen.) We hung on her every word and gesture, waiting for her terrible story to come pouring out, barely able to stand it as it did. I've never been so heartbroken during a play as when she lit a series of candles and introduced us to her family.
The play dragged into naked light of day the undeniable fact that there is much in the experience of a refugee, especially one driven from home by brutality and war as in Rwanda and The Congo, that someone like me can never hope to understand. It's so far removed from one of the fundamentals of my existence: Safety. Sure no one's ever completely safe, but the difference between my daily life and the life of someone in the midst of that sort of conflict, running from it, losing family and friends, living in a refugee camp, for years and years, it boggles the mind.
Go see this play. It's simple, it's short, there's not even an intermission, and it's brilliantly done.
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