{"id":85,"date":"2011-04-29T09:41:58","date_gmt":"2011-04-29T09:41:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/isoko-theatre-relives-the-genocide-through-drama\/"},"modified":"2011-04-29T09:36:49","modified_gmt":"2011-04-29T09:36:49","slug":"isoko-theatre-relives-the-genocide-through-drama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/isoko-theatre-relives-the-genocide-through-drama\/","title":{"rendered":"ISOKO Theatre relives the genocide through drama"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a scene near the end of The Monument<\/em>, Colleen Wagner\u2019s searing 1995 drama about wartime atrocities, when a young soldier is forced to remember in detail the 23 women he has raped and murdered. \u201cI killed a girl named Mini. Fifteen. She had a sun-burned face,\u201d he recalls. \u201cA girl named Sara. She wore glasses. She was short and chubby\u2026 Eva. She was a swimmer in training for the Olympics.\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The list goes on and, as it does, the anonymous, half-rotten corpses in a mass grave begin to take on names and, however rudimentary, identities. It\u2019s an act of resurrection and reclamation that lies at the heart of Wagner\u2019s Governor-General\u2019s Award-winning play. And it becomes the resonant centrepiece<\/span> of the touring production by Rwanda\u2019s IS\u00d4KO<\/span> Theatre<\/span>, which closes Harbourfront<\/span> Centre\u2019s World Stage season.<\/p>\n

As the soldier, Stetko<\/span> (Jean Paul Uwayezu<\/span>), recollects his victims, he draws their personal effects from amid the exhumed bodies \u2013 a bracelet, some pimple cream, a crucifix, a bra. Each item is snatched away in turn by a pair of female phantoms (Solange<\/span> Liza Umuhire<\/span> and Ruth Nirere<\/span>) clad in dresses the colour<\/span> of dried blood. We\u2019re in Rwanda in the aftermath of the 1994 genocide. But we\u2019re also in Bosnia, the original setting of Wagner\u2019s play, and these personal items \u2013 the most poignant touch in director Jennifer H. Capraru\u2019s<\/span> stark staging \u2013 may also remind you of the ones that were raked from the ashes of the Nazi ovens.<\/p>\n

Wagner\u2019s play begins with suggestions of a revenge fantasy. Stetko<\/span>, about to be executed for his war crimes, is offered a reprieve by a mysterious older woman named Mejra<\/span> (Jaqueline<\/span> Umubyeyi<\/span>). The catch is that he must obey her for the rest of his life.<\/p>\n

After slicing off one of his ears and nearly beating him to a pulp, Mejra<\/span> turns Stetko<\/span> into her slave and torments him with mind games concerning the fate of his virgin girlfriend. But it turns out she desires something more than vengeance \u2013 it\u2019s that famous casualty of wartime, the truth.<\/p>\n

Leaving aside the characters\u2019 east European names, it would be easy to believe The Monument was originally written about the systematic rape that occurred during the Rwandan genocide, with Stetko<\/span> as a Hutu<\/span> fighter and his victims as minority Tutsi. The play\u2019s truth-and-reconciliation theme also jibes with Rwanda\u2019s postwar policies. Capraru<\/span>, a Canadian, obviously recognized these parallels when she founded IS\u00d4KO<\/span> a few years ago in Kigali. Her production originated there and has toured Rwanda prior to its North American debut at World Stage.<\/p>\n

The dialogue<\/span> \u2013 performed in Kinyarwanda<\/span>, with English surtitles<\/span> \u2013 stays faithful to Wagner\u2019s text, but the trappings are entirely East African. The show, in Harbourfront\u2019s<\/span> flexible Brigantine Room, is presented as intimately as a village storytelling, with the audience seated in a circle around the candlelit playing space. The Rwandan cast members are musicians as well, and there is a cappella singing and drumming during scene transitions. The drums also furnish the few sound effects \u2013 Stetko\u2019s<\/span> beating, a gunshot \u2013 while Sandra Marcroft\u2019s<\/span> subtle lighting does most of the scene-setting.<\/p>\n

The acting is spare and intense. Stetko<\/span> is Wagner\u2019s variation on the banality-of-evil theme \u2013 he\u2019s the Devil as the boy next door \u2013 and the lean, handsome Uwayezu<\/span> brings out the confused and immature kid under his soldier\u2019s swagger. It\u2019s Umubyeyi<\/span> who most impresses, however. Her Mejra<\/span> is a fierce enigma for much of the play, regarding Stetko<\/span> with cold eyes. When at last she unfetters her grief, like a modern Andromache<\/span>, it\u2019s heart-rending.<\/p>\n

Capraru<\/span> \u2013 who is also artistic director of Toronto\u2019s Theatre<\/span> Asylum \u2013 favours<\/span> a stylized approach that de-emphasizes the play\u2019s violence and physicality. Instead, we often feel like we are watching an ancient, cathartic ritual. That was probably the best way to offer the play to Rwandan audiences for whom the subject matter alone is bound to be painful. This is a chance to re-appreciate Wagner\u2019s regrettably timeless tale from a fresh perspective.<\/p>\n

IS\u00d4KO<\/span> is a new intercultural theatre<\/span> company founded July 4th, 2008 in Kigali, which creates contemporary theatre<\/span> for human rights. IS\u00d4KO<\/span> contributes to civil society, social development, and creative economy in Rwanda. The company is founded in the spirit of exchange, to celebrate Rwandan artists and to further global peace building, while promoting equality for women and girls.<\/p>\n

IS\u00d4KO<\/span> THEATRE<\/span> is a local NGO based in Rwandaand<\/span> is partnered withTheatre<\/span> Asylum, Canada. We are members of Theatres<\/span> Against War, Dramatool<\/span>, and Theatre<\/span> Without Borders, and collaborators each year in the Centre x Centre Kigali International Theatre<\/span> Festival at Ishyo<\/span> Arts Centre.<\/p>\n

The Monument<\/p>\n