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‘Maria Kizito’ at 7 Stages
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW: “Maria Kizito� Through Oct. 24.
John Adams commemorated Sept. 11, 2001, with “On the Transmigration of Souls,� a symphonic work that won a Pulitzer Prize.
Picasso lamented the remains of Spain’s Civil War with the monumental “Guernica.�
Now California playwright Erik Ehn takes on the 1994 Rwandan genocide with “Maria Kizito,� a drama that poses troubling questions about the combustible nature of religious fanaticism and war.
Opening 7 Stages' 25th season, the world premiere delves into the case of the Hutu nuns — Maria Kizito and Gertrude Mukangango — who assisted in the massacre of some 7,000 members of the rival Tutsi minority. Why did these Benedictine sisters betray the countrymen who sought sanctuary in their convent? How could Maria supply the gasoline used to burn hundreds alive?
Like any good artist responding to human catastrophe, Ehn doesn't claim to know all the answers. Instead, he uses the facts of the crime as a blueprint for a philosophical investigation. Directed by 7 Stages’ Del Hamilton, “Maria Kizito� melds dance, music, prayer and scenic design into a sweltering choreopoem of baffling, almost schizophrenic, extremes.
In its quarter-century in Atlanta, 7 Stages has become a national player by presenting new plays that push the boundaries of theater. Oftentimes, this makes for work that is perplexing and hard to sell. “Maria Kizito� is no exception.
One cannot overestimate the apocalyptic beauty of Ehn's language or the haunting stagecraft on display here. “My heart is a white tin, a tin of gasoline,� says Maria, opening a window onto a hallucinatory landscape of pure, elemental images.
But poetry doesn’t always travel tidily to the stage, and Hamilton and his designers don’t seem to know where to stop. Hence a text that by nature is fragmentary and mysterious becomes a cloying pile of ideas, symbols and lofty prop-metaphors.
The event that triggered the genocide, in which 800,000 Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus were slaughtered over 100 days, was the shooting down of President Juvenal Habyarimana’s plane in April 1994.
As the play begins, we fast-forward to 2001: An American nun (Laurie Strickland) has decided to travel to Belgium, where Maria (Crystal Dickinson) and Gertrude (Marvel Micheale) are on trial for their crimes.
While Dickinson gives an admirable account of Maria's hysteria, the magic of Ehn's esoteric material sometimes evaporates in Strickland's rushed delivery. And while the actors' various accents often capture the musicality of African speech, Johnell Easter’s Rekeraho sounds more like an urban American youth than a Rwandan militia leader. (There's an element of Charles Manson and Squeaky Fromme in the Rekeraho-Maria relationship, and you can't help but wonder how the play would be different if that were exploited.)
With so many cans of gasoline, flickering candles, shrill whistles and so on, the less embellished moments work best.
Bryan Mercer’s video projection, with its soaring-jet motif, works nicely to frame the historical timeline with Ehn’s storytelling device. Faye Allen’s set, which secludes most of the action inside the convent walls, is illumined by the shadow-glow of Jessica Coale’s evocative lighting.
Standing at the “Book of Genocide,â€? Yvonne Singh unleashes an a cappella blues lament that is heart-stoppingly sad. Though the show could probably do without the clichĂ©d machete dance, Olori “Mama Yeyeâ€? Oriyomi’s African-inspired choreography is, for the most part, rich in detail and wonderfully authentic.
Ehn’s impulse to look at the moral issues of our time through the mysteries of faith is a noble one. But given the complexity of ideas swirling through it, a streamlined staging would probably serve the script better.
THE VERDICT: Story gets thrown out with the bath water.
8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; 5 p.m. Sundays. Sept. 30-Oct. 24. Also 10 a.m. Thursday Oct. 7 and Oct. 14; 2 p.m. Saturday; Oct. 9; 5:30 p.m. Oct. 13 and 20. $20-$25. Through Oct. 24. 7 Stages, 1105 Euclid Ave. N.E., Atlanta. 404-523-7647, www.7stages.org.
Coming in Sunday’s Arts & Books: How “Maria Kizito� fits into the recent wave of fact-based plays.
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