“The Overwhelming,” a fictional story about outsiders facing terror during the Rwandan genocide, opened the mainstage SMU theater season this Wednesday.
Written by J.T. Rogers, “The Overwhelming” was originally produced at the National Theatre’s Cottesloe Theatre in London in 2006. The title comes from the Mongo word “lokeli,” or “the overwhelming,” used to describe the millions of Congolese killed after the Belgian King Leopold II’s attempt to conquer the Congo basin of Africa.
The play follows Jack Exley, a political science professor from the U.S. who travels to Kigali with his wife and son. His career at stake, Jack is in search of his old college roommate, Joseph, now a Tutsi doctor in Rwanda, in hopes that he can publish a book on Joseph’s work with children stricken with AIDS. When the family arrives in Rwanda in early 1994, just months before the true genocide began, the doctor cannot be found nor do any of the local Hutus admit to knowing him. The play continues following the Exley family in their quest for the truth.
The play motivates the audience to see the lack of action by the U.S. and the U.N. during the events in Rwanda. Perhaps Rogers hopes that some audience members will leave the play inspired to take action in the current genocide in Darfur. Some might also leave with images of the war in Iraq with statements like, “The engine here’s not democracy, my friend. It’s violence and fear.”
In an interview with the New York Times, Rogers says that before publishing the play, he had it reviewed by genocide survivors to assure that he had captured the true experience. Rogers states that he hoped to write a play that would remain with the audience in the days and weeks after seeing it.
“I’ve been gripped by the idea of what I would have done if I were set in a situation like that where every option open to you was monstrous, what choices I would make and who I would be after that,” Rogers said.
While the play has gained acclaim from critics internationally, it has also received more critical reviews for its predictability and similarities to the 1949 film, “The Third Man.” It has also been said the view of the Rwandan genocide from outsiders, the Exlers, doesn’t give justice to the actual events in the way recent films have.
Of course, others disagree. Fergal Keane, a journalist who covered the Rwandan genocide for BBC News and wrote a memoir of the experience in Season of Blood, says, “a play can entertain, challenge, upset and anger an audience; at its best it can make them think deeply about the world in which they live and be prepared to challenge orthodoxies and lies. This play is a powerful antidote to the kind of indifference which characterized our response to Rwanda.”
“The Overwhelming,” directed by Stan Wojewodski, Jr. will run Friday- Saturday at 8 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. in the Margo Jones Theatre.
