Two Into War

Two Into War

play! Theatre, through Feb. 11

Running Time: 1 hr, 30 min

Bear with me while I work something out. The word "complicit" means "associated with or participating in a questionable act or crime." Just for the sake of argument, let's say that 5% of the American population dropped dead due to the fact that they didn't have enough food, water, or medicine to keep themselves alive because the other countries of the world decided that they couldn't have those things. But why, you might ask, would the other countries of the world do such a thing? Let's say that, without obvious provocation, America attacked and occupied another country and is now being punished for doing so. Would any of us patriotic, self-righteous, generally overfed, lazy Americans stand for such a thing? What fantasy, right? But then, we wouldn't have to, would we? We are, after all, a superpower.

That's what happened in Iraq after Operation Desert Storm and the United Nations sanctions. Five percent of the population dead. Most of them children. 5,000 children a month. But who's counting?

Naomi Wallace's "The Retreating World," one of the two pieces in this Different Stages American premiere now showing at play! Theatre, centers on this very subject. Ali, a young man conscripted into Saddam's army, whose best friend was quite literally blown to pieces beside him, tells us about post-war Iraq and the effects of the sanctions through the touchstone of a book on birds. As played by Ben Wolfe, Ali is an open, charming man, a pigeon-lover whose gentle and caring instincts have been partially supplanted by his intense anger and humiliation over the state of his beloved "land of dates." Seeing the connection between this piece and Fraser Grace's "Gifts of War," the other half of the evening, might not be immediately obvious, as Grace's play focuses on a woman partying with the Greeks after the torches have been lit to signal Greece's victory over the Trojans. Hildreth England, in blond wig, turquoise pantsuit, and heavy make-up, plays the woman as a party girl, not Greek, but an ally, drunk and loose and seeming to have a high old time allowing the Athenian women to seduce her. Both Ali and the woman are victims, but one is powerless, while the other hides a terrible secret. Director Latifah Taormina stages the plays with sensitive simplicity, and while I wished there were more still and quiet moments, like the intense ending of "Gifts" and Ali's mournful songs in "World," Taormina appears to have, quite rightly, placed great trust in her two actors, who carry the evening.

So why should anyone reading this want to see a couple of war plays? Well, how many of those reading understand what depleted uranium weapons are? How many understand why the "war on terrorism" is unconstitutional? How many know the number of civilians that have been killed since the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom? If you don't know the answers to these questions, or others like them, how can you say that you aren't in some way complicit in these crimes against humanity?

And most importantly, what are you going to do about it?