Better
late than never might well be the watchwords for
J.T. Rogers insightful but structurally shortchanged play, The
Overwhelming,
now playing at the Berkeley Street Theatre in Toronto and presented by Studio
180
Theatre. This fictitious drama, originally produced by Britain's
Royal
National Theatre in 2006, details
the events leading up to the Rwandan Genocide and ends about where the
film
Hotel Rwanda begins and, as such, only emphasizes all the more
graphically what
so many people in the West missed at the time in 1993-94. "Missed" is
probably the wrong word here. Couldn't be bothered to think about is
perhaps a
more accurate description of the period.
Rogers
creates dramatic tension in this piece primarily
by the use of parallel story lines - the micro personal and the macro
political.
Associate Professor Jack Exley (David Storch), a recently
appointed
tenure-track academic from the U.S. arrives in Rwanda with research and
publishing deadlines breathing down his neck. He is frustrated in his
attempts
to make contact with his old college friend, Joseph Gasana (Nigel
Shawn
Williams), a Rwandan physician now running a pediatric AIDS clinic
who has gone
missing inexplicably. It is Exley's project to profile Gasana and his
clinic as
an example of outstanding international grass roots activism. Exley
arrives in
Kigali with his wife, Linda, and his teenage son, Geoffrey, in tow.
Hovering in
the margins of the play's dialog is the looming personal danger invoked
by the
Rwanda Genocide itself in which over 800,000 people perished. The
growing
danger is emphasized dramatically by way of a fast paced flurry of
scenes that
include embassy cocktail partys, intermittent expositional soliloquies
injected
by Dr. Gasana himself, and various cultural forays such as a visit to
the local
market and an encounter by Geoffrey (totally gratuitous) with a local
prostitute.
It
is at this point that I breathe a great sigh of relief
knowing the play's Toronto production is in the capable hands of Studio
180's
artistic director, Joel Greenberg, who states the theatre's
mission quite
succinctly in the program notes: "To produce socially relevant theatre
that provides public discourse and promotes community engagement." In
this
case, the essence of that mission statement means that the play is only
the
beginning of a larger discussion, including regular Talkback sessions
scheduled
for audiences throughout the run of the play featuring leading social
justice
activists, reps from human rights organizations and NGOs with on the
ground
experience in that region of Africa who have an overview and
understanding of
the issues raised in the play that is important to hear in order to put
the
events of the play in context.
From
the opening dialog that careens back and forth as
fast as the car driven by Woolsey
(Hardee T. Lineham), the crusty old American ex-pat who
is explaining
the lay of the land to the egoistic, prima-donna academic, Exley, on
their way
in from the airport, The Overwhelming moves along at a brisk pace and never flags as far as keeping our
interest is concerned.
The
ensemble of actors that Greenberg has assembled (some
of whom we have seen in previous Studio 180 productions) is required to
rotate
in multiple roles and they do so with easy mobility and considerable
range.
Excellent work coming from DorothyA. Atabong (as Elise Kayitesi
and a Rwandan
doctor) and Audrey Dwyer (Emiritha, Market Woman and
Waitress); Andre Sills is
called upon to delineate a UN commander, an embassy attaché, and
local police
officer which he does with efficiency and dispatch; Sterling Jarvis
is the
benign then menacing Samuel Mizinga; the very versatile Paul
Essiembre gives a
crisp delivery as Jean-Claude Buisson,
JanVerbeek and a British Doctor; Mariah Inger plays
Linda White-Keeler
the breezily bi-lingual wife of Jack Exley with just the right amount
of savoir
faire for every occasion while her conflicted stepson, Geoffrey, played
by
Brendan McMurtry-Howlett gives a standout performance as the
young teenager who
finds himself confused and overwhelmed by the personal as well as the
political.
Nigel
Shawn Williams playing Joseph Gasana, a waiter, an
orderly and a servant respectively, is burdened a bit in his final
speech to
the audience when (in a kind of feel good final moment as the selfless
Dr.
Gasana) he proclaims that humanity is good and that the world will
survive
before he is dragged off to his death. Regardless, Mr. Williams
displays once
again why he continues to be one of the finest actors on the Canadian
stage
today.
It
should be said here in closing that the multi-racial,
multi-lingual ambience of the piece - which is central to the over
arching
character of this work - builds in no small amount of sympathy for the
play
notwithstanding the script's dark subject matter.