It is amazing to not live at war. This is the first thing realized when We in Silcence Hear a Whisper began with the with the bulky sound severed arms being tossed out of a well. Halima is the one doing the tossing, and I'm not giving anything away by telling you that she's looking for her brother's arm, so she and what's left of her family can bury it in lieu of his body, which they've no hope of finding.
Halima knows us, but we don't know her. She speaks directly to us, commenting on our clothes, our customs, our faces, but we remain silent; we are a good audience, and we know better than to speak out of turn. We don't warn her when danger approaches, even though she keeps us as close counsel, we don't help her when her body, her country and her consciousness are brutalized, we just sit in darkness and watch, listen, feeling detached from her and her plight. Not that we lack empathy, we are empathetic all over the place; Halima is a dear girl and we want her to be safe- but not enough to jump onto the world stage and actually do anything about it. To do something about it would be to get out of our seats, to interact with this girl who we do not know (but who intimately knows us). And we don't know how deep the problem goes, or how many more maggoty arms are drowned in that well, or how long we would have to stay involved... and what with the L train not running it could take hours for us to get back home.
For all the devastation, Jon Kern's play has a lightness about it that make the atrocities almost bearable. There are puppets, and distance, and witticisms. The actors have an openness and a resolve that may speak to the meaning of life itself. I get the sense that Kern really loves his characters, and he because of that love he gives them every chance to survive amidst stark deprivation. But in the end, it is us audience, us Americans, who bear witness to abject horror and do nothing to stop it.
As for me, I stayed for the opening night reception, chatted with friends, and took a taxi home.
The Red Fern Theatre Company’s World Premiere of
We in Silence Hear a Whisper
written by Jon Kern
directed by Melanie Moyer Williams
October 5 – 23 at The Theater at the 14th Street Y (344 East 14 St.) in NYC.
TICKETS:http://RedFernTheatre.org
Libby Emmons is a guest blogger and NYTR published playwright, for more info on Libby Emmons
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