In “Bina’s Six Apples,” a family must abruptly flee for safety as bombings and battles encroach upon their home. It’s an all too familiar sight right now, as daily images of Russia’s onslaught of Ukraine dominate global news, showing millions of refugees fleeing towns under siege every day. So, it is eerily timely that Brooklyn-based playwright Lloyd Suh’s tale of one little girl searching for her family during the Korean War of the 1950s has arrived on the Alliance Theatre’s stage.
But the theme of senseless violence is also a powerful and sadly eternal one, given the shattering conflicts that have continually riddled the world and the impact these clashes have on regular people with no direct stake in the conflict — who just want to be able to live their lives. Out of this truth, Suh has crafted a poetic, mythological reflection on the horror and heartbreak of senseless violence.
It’s a world premiere co-production with Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis. But make no mistake: This is not your average kids’ entertainment. This may have some of the trappings of the children’s shows you’re used to — and on the night I attended, there were many kids in the audience — but this is far from a simple tale. As deftly directed by Eric Ting, these are complex and deep waters into which we’re wading.
Credit: Greg Mooney
Credit: Greg Mooney
We begin with a scene under an orchard tree between Bina and her father. Her father explains why the family must set out on the road toward Busan, some 70 miles away, which will entail some “20 hours of walking.” It’s poignant to watch him respond to his daughter’s simple but profound queries — about why there’s war and why they have to leave. What are all wars about? “Who gets to be in charge of things?”
He musters up, “Sometimes that’s the way of the world, full of hateful things.” Then he encourages her to “just try to be one of the lovely things” instead.
The Korean War from 1950 to 1953 was fought between northern and southern factions of the country, driven by complex factors, including the Cold War between the U.S. and Soviet Union. Suh said he was inspired by the real-life experience of his father, who was born in Korea and at around age 5 had to pack up and escape with his parents and 10 siblings. The playwright said that his father had a happy memory of being asked to carry apples — a task which Suh said became clear in retrospect had been bestowed as a way of keeping his father’s young mind distracted.
The play emerged as Suh envisioned his 10-year-old daughter in the situation that his parents had lived through, he said during a Q&A after Tuesday’s performance. By crafting this story, he melded the generations of his family, threading together their separate histories.
After a bomb goes off and Bina gets separated from her family, the six apples she has been charged with carrying are the only things she has to keep her hopeful, to keep her going and hanging onto the idea that she may find them once again. The apples come to represent something sacred, far beyond just sustenance.
An odyssey of sorts follows, where Bina encounters a range of desperate, sometimes funny, sometimes tragic figures. A mother is looking for her lost daughter — hungry and getting increasingly angry that Bina won’t give her one of the apples. “I’m not going to make it. And neither are you,” the woman says with bitter resignation.
There’s an incongruously peppy boatman who, like Charon of Greek mythology ferrying hapless souls across the river Styx, barters with people on the river’s shoreline to transport them across the hellish landscape.
The forward momentum of this surreal journey benefits from masterful scenic and lighting design by Jiyoun Chang. All of the fable-like qualities move to the fore with a versatile and ethereal-looking backdrop that features the impressionistic sketch of a mountain range, colored by the hues of the sky and twinkling at night with little lights as stars, like a physical manifestation of memory.
The carefully constructed costume design by Junghyun Georgia Lee helps to inform each distinct character. In a particularly nice touch, family members come back as a kind of chorus, hiding among the rocks with flower-laden headdresses. It’s like when we see glimmers of lost loved ones in the faces of strangers sometimes — a very real phenomenon of grief.
Various images and lines will stick with you long after curtain. Figures slowly and gracefully collapse under a red sky. A lone ragged child waits in vain for a mother who never will return. “If they rot, will I still carry them?” Bina wonders aloud, then asks the shimmering river before her, “If I rot, will you carry me?”
As Bina, Olivia Lampert perfectly captures the child’s-eye view of something completely incomprehensible. She weeps unceasingly at the separation from her beloved family, but she also has moments of humor, wonder, trust. She demonstrates resourcefulness and processes betrayals from the adults around her who are equally lost. Her bravery and generosity are guileless and instinctive.
Credit: Greg Mooney
Credit: Greg Mooney
The whole ensemble is stellar, but Joseph Pendergrast delivers a standout performance as a young soldier who has deserted his troop to go search for his own family. He has moments of heightened paranoia that lands laughs — “You’re a real kid, right?” he asks, worrying that the apple Bina holds in her hand might be a grenade. He cycles through compassion, guilt, panic and remorse, bringing some ingratiating comic timing to those jangling nerves.
As we follow Bina’s suspense-filled story, we never quite know what might happen next. For those who may be acclimated to extremely bleak stories, real and fictional alike, about what happens when food, water and resources become scarce, it’s hard not to find yourself wincing with each potentially nefarious line. For example, when the boatman ominously tells Bina, “Oh, I don’t (ferry people) out of goodness.”
But Suh’s script skillfully balances on that edge. Even though people are shell-shocked and looking out for themselves, they’re also not the worst of humanity — they’re just people trying to do the best they can while navigating impossible circumstances. As one character points out, “No one thinks they’re on the bad guy’s side.”
In the end, it’s up to each viewer whether they see the course of Bina’s narrative as symbolic or literal, which is the mark of rich storytelling. There are many ways to perceive the course of events, and none of them are wrong.
“We’ve had lots of conversations about what could be interpreted to be literal,” Suh told the Alliance audience on Tuesday. “I want (everyone) to respond to it personally.”
THEATER REVIEW
“Bina’s 6 Apples”
Through March 27. $10-$42. Alliance Theatre, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta. 404-733-4600, alliancetheatre.org.
Credit: ArtsATL
Credit: ArtsATL
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