Aftermath - Old Vic Tunnels
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
PART OF LIFT 2010: a London-wide Festival of International Theatre, the New York Theatre Workshop production of Aftermath runs in the Old Vic Tunnels from July 8 to July 17, 2010.
From Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, the award winning creators of The Exonerated, this piece of documentary theatre is based on interviews conducted with thirty seven Iraqi civilians displaced by the violence of war, and driven to seek refuge in Jordan.
A cast of nine portray the experiences of an extraordinary cross section of Iraqi society six and a half years after the US invasion. They include the voice of an Imam imprisoned in Abu Ghraib, a young mother whose family was caught in a car bombing, and a Shiite couple forced to flee after a militia pressured them to inform on their Sunni neighbours.
The result vividly brings to life the realities of wartime, its innocent victims, and the appalling carnage of conflict.
Jessica Blank directs a cast that includes Fajer Al-Kaisi (Shahid), Amir Arison (Yasser), Leila Buck (Basima), Maha Chehlaoui (Fadilah), Demonthenes Chrysan (Abdul-Aliyy), Daoud Heidami (Asad), Omar Koury (Fouad) and Rasha Zamamiri (Naimah).
Aftermath premiered at New York Theatre Workshop in September 2009 to widespread critical acclaim, and is the only major American production focusing on the plight of Iraqi civilians.
While names and locations have been changed to protect identities, ninety-five percent of the text is verbatim, taken from interviews conducted by Blank and Jensen in Jordan with Sunnis, Shiites and Christians in exile.
From happy memories of an interdenominational neighborhood in Fallujah to the chilling sounds of the first bombs falling onto Baghdad and a cry from the heart of an uncle whose nephew was killed by nameless Americans, Aftermath offers an unprecedented theatrical perspective on the lives of innocent people losing their country and caught in one of the largest ground attacks the world has known.
Husband and wife team Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen’s previous production, The Exonerated, on the plights of six people wrongfully convicted of murder, has toured internationally and ran at Riverside Studios in 2006 following a distinguished run at Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2005, where it gained a Fringe First, Herald Angel and Amnesty International award.
Prior to its UK visit, The Exonerated ran for over 600 performances Off-Broadway and in 2005 was made into a film starring Susan Sarandon and Danny Glover.
The UK premiere of Aftermath is presented by LIFT and The Old Vic in association with ArKtype and Amnesty International.
Tickets: £15, £12 concessions – available on 0844 871 7628 or at www.oldvictheatre.com
Time: Tuesday to Saturday at 7.45pm. Matinees on Saturday, Sunday and Thursday at 3pm (except Thursday, July 8).
Running Time: Approximately 85 minutes.
In February 2010, The Old Vic acquired a lease for a series of subterranean tunnels to create an innovative performance space beneath Waterloo Station.