Aftermath

Compassion fatigue afflicts many in the western world due to prolonged exposure to suffering via the media. Already encouraged to think, during wartime, of an enemy as ‘other’, as something less than human, our concern and empathy for victims of war and natural disaster further diminishes when we are saturated with images of tragedy in newspapers, magazines, on television and online.

Aftermath, by the writer/director team of Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, was originally developed by the New York Theatre Workshop in 2009. Based on a series of interviews Blank and Jensen conducted with Iraqi refugees living in Jordan, the play is a remarkable exercise in humanising the people of Iraq, and a powerful antidote to compassion fatigue.

On a stage bare save for a series of chairs, eight actors take on the roles of real Iraqis: a theatre director and his artist wife; a pharmacist; an Imam; a dermatologist; a housewife and mother; a married couple, both cooks; and a translator who learned English playing computer games. The stories they tell are carefully interwoven and dramatically rich; revealing simple details of their daily lives, the chaos that followed the downfall of Saddam Hussein, and the impact and horrors of war.

A roadside bomb that kills almost every member of one character’s family; religious conflicts that seek to turn neighbour against neighbour; fundamentalists who consider artists worthy only of death; and the unspeakable indignities of Abu Ghraib; the topics explored in Aftermath are not for the faint hearted, though the script is judiciously leavened with humour at certain points, and often leaves the worst details unsaid. It is a dignified, deeply humanising piece of theatre.

Subtle lighting and sound design add to the impact of the play, and performances are, without exception, excellent. The script is careful to establish the normality of the characters’ lives in detail, gradually and deliberately building towards the more confronting elements of the work. Its impact comes like a blow to the heart that left this reviewer wiping away tears and gasping for breath.

Documentary theatre at its best, this carefully constructed, remarkably moving play is a highlight of the 2011 Melbourne Festival.

Rating: Four and a half stars

Aftermath
Text: Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen
Director: Jessica Blank
Executive Producer: Arktype/Thomas O. Kriegsmann
Production Stage Manager: Larry K. Ash
Production Manager / Technical Director: Justin Partier
Costume Designer: Gabriel Berry
Scenic Design: Richard Hoover
Based on a Lighting Design by David Lander
Produced by The New York Theatre Workshop
Original Music & Sound Designer: David Robbins
Cast: Barzin Akhavan, Fajer Al-Kaisi, Leila Buck, Daoud Heidami, Lameece Issaq, Omar Koury, Ryan Shams, Ted Sod, Rasha Zamamiri

Merlyn Theatre, CUB Malthouse
October 11 – 14

Melbourne Festival
October 6 – 22

This review first appeared at Arts Hub on October 14th 2011.