The Triangle

Issue date: 3/13/09 Section: Arts & Entertainment

Media Credit: Jim Roese

As part of their 30th anniversary season, the Wilma Theater is presenting the East Coast premiere of "Scorched" through March 29. The show was written by Lebanese-Canadian playwright Wajdi Mouawad and has been performed worldwide. Translated into a dozen languages, the show's concepts of family relationships and ethnic conflict are relevant to many cultures and current events.

The play opens on a barren stage, as the central characters, twins Janine and Simon, are read their mother's will and final wishes. She requests that Janine deliver a letter to her father, a man she believed died years ago in the Civil War, and that Simon deliver a letter to a brother he never knew existed. This information causes shock and distress as both twins struggle to internalize this news from a mother who had stopped speaking to them five years earlier. The ideas of voluntary silence and secrets between parent and child are woven throughout the heartbreaking narrative.

Janine is the first to leave for "her mother's country," though Simon does eventually follow. The sequence of events moves seamlessly from the present of the twins' search to the past with an account of the mother's childhood until her voluntary silence. The actress that plays the young Nawal is as enchanting as she is heartbreaking while the audience learns of the early sadness that enters her life.

The most moving scenes though were those of middle aged Nawal and her partner in crime, Sawda. The two women are political activists doing everything in their power to aid their war torn country. Sawda was captivating as she struggled not to retaliate and become no better than the enemy.

A certain amount of dramatic irony is created in the tension between what the twins have discovered and what the audience has gathered through these scenes of the past. The push and pull carries the almost three hour play along smoothly and the audience yearns to know how it will all resolve.

The epic story of "Scorched" would not be complete without an equally beautiful visual production. The stage remains sparse throughout the show with small props and set pieces added only as needed. This allows the perfectly choreographed blocking to take center stage. The director creates scenes and pictures with her actors that in moments of silence speak volumes.

One of the most intense scenes, which came from Mouawad's personal experience, is that of a bus of civilians being massacred. As a hysterical Nawal recounts what took place, red water flows from above the stage to grates below, raising the intensity of the moment greatly.

Iraqi-American composer Amir ElSaffar's musical score added to the production with its combination of jazz and Middle Eastern instruments. Singing is woven into the story through Sawda and "the woman who sings." The lighting helps to delineate time and place as it creates separate locations within the same stage.

The ensemble of actors created a show whose intensity was palpable at times and which moved the audience to tears at moments. The narrative keeps the audience in suspense for so long that audience members were literally at the edge of their seats as the final scenes unfolded. Mouamad's story leaves much food for thought as the play closes with a realization as shocking as it is horrific. The show is an absolute must see and more information regarding times and ticket prices can be found at www.wilmatheater.org.

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