Thursday, July 18, 2024

A Compelling Catharsis

 

A Compelling Catharsis 

 










By Tom Wachunas 

“I sat with my anger long enough until she told me her real name was grief.”  ― C.S. Lewis

   The sky fell, the earth bled. On December 21, 1988, 270 people from 21 countries died in the terrorist bombing of Pan American Flight 103 en route from London to New York. The explosion rained a torrent of human bodies and debris across many miles, including the city of Lockerbie, Scotland, where 11 of the dead were Lockerbie citizens on the ground.

   That’s the start of the story in Deborah Brevoort’s 2001 play, The Women of Lockerbie. It’s written as a modern form of classical Greek tragedy. This profoundly moving ode to mourning, anger and redemption, presented by Seat of the Pants Productions and directed by Craig Joseph, is as breath-giving as it is breathtaking.

   The combination of scenic design by Ron Newell and lighting by Micah Harvey is a potent one, creating a sensation of barren, haunted landscape. Abstract sculptural forms hover in the air, alternately suggesting plumes of smoke, mangled wreckage, or twisted bodies descending.  

   The play unfolds during the night of the winter solstice -  December 21, 1995 -  in the rolling hills of Lockerbie on the 7th anniversary of the horrible crime. Wandering through the Lockerbie landscape is Madeline Livingston (Anjanette Hall), a New Jersey housewife who had spent every day of her life weeping since the bombing.

    Arriving in Lockerbie with her husband, Bill (Terence Cranendonk), for a memorial community mourning vigil, Madeline senses ghosts in the hills and immediately goes on an urgent search for the unrecovered remains of her 20 year-old son who had perished in the crash. Bill, knowing such a crazed hunt was futile, is powerless to assuage her misery. He questions Madeline’s sanity. He wonders if God even exists in this world. His own pent-up grief is all the more augmented when his wife says he doesn’t love their son at all.

    Bill connects with tender-hearted, feisty Lockerbie resident, Olive Allison (Anne McEvoy) and two of her friends (Woman 1, played by Charlene V. Smith, and Woman 2, played by Natalie Sander Kern). Each member of this lively ‘chorus’ suffered personal loss in the bombing. When Olive encounters Madeline’s whining self-pity, she breaks down, unleashing a furious, hateful tirade against America’s role in the bombing. The need for mutual healing was never more urgent.

   The women unite and embrace a mission of mercy to retrieve 11,000 pieces of clothing recovered from the crash so they can wash them in a stream - a symbolic action of purification meant to cleanse broken souls. The clothes had been sealed in bags (deemed “contaminated evidence” by the U.S. government), and stored in a warehouse guarded by a cold-hearted, disgruntled American bureaucrat, George Jones (Doug Sutherland). “Lockerbie is the Siberia of the State Department” is his blithe assessment. He refuses to release the clothing as it is scheduled to be burned up very soon. Eventually he will relent, proclaiming, “Hate won’t win in Lockerbie.”  Meanwhile, he accuses his Lockerbie employee, Hattie (Sabrina Maristela), of being a spy as she’s constantly at his office door busily sweeping up the dirt from his shoes. An amused Hatie denies the accusation, and then casually denies her denial in a welcome dose of sassy humor.

   In his program notes, director Craig Joseph wrote, “I’m grateful for the clear-minded, open-hearted, and full-bodied cast and design team who bravely explored these questions: What might a Greek drama look like in the 21st century?  How would it force us to work differently? What new skills would it invite us to develop?...”

    Open-hearted, full-bodied bravery. New skills indeed. The startling caliber of unflinching expressionism from all the performers in this heart-wrenching story of communal connection and healing is extraordinary. It’s an expressionism, certainly a poetry, at once terrifying and painful, sincere and credible. And ultimately inspiring.

    Sky falls. Earth bleeds. Alone we are broken. Together we heal. Catharsis is that simple, that complex. Come see. Listen (oh, those marvelous Scottish accents!). And be grateful.

  

 The Women of Lockerbie – photos by Aimee Lambes -  July 19, 20, 26, 27 at 7:30pm / July 21 and 26 at 2:30pm / at Founders Hall, Malone University, 425 25th Street NW Canton, OH / Tickets at

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-women-of-lockerbie-by-deborah-brevoort-tickets-685782894097?aff=oddtdtcreator&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR2j84eMZujTPU65O8dpAWt9OoBDG_R1hoIN8bVV2LHLnyJt8Si-Z2VZJYo_aem_BnxOlna74cJnN5o4_454og

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