Love and war
Noah's Ark 747
by Silvija Jestrovic
directed by Paulina B. Abarca
MAI (Montréal Arts Interculturels)
The horrors of the Yugoslavian war are cast in miniature in the new Teesri Duniya production Noah's Ark 747, seen through the relationship between three friends and one newcomer, all of them squeezed inside Robert Leader's small cage of a set.
It is the mid '90s. Young couple Katarina (Lynne Adams) and Theodore (Howard Rosenstein) have fled the bombardment of Sarajevo to Belgrade, and now await an immigration appointment to see if they'll be allowed into Canada.
Enter their old friend Igor (Adrian Burhop) who has also escaped from Sarajevo. A writer and bon-vivant, he's the artist-revolutionary to their staid couple—and Katarina's one-time lover as well.
A fourth shows up in the form of a young impressionable journalist, Boyana (Lili Catherine Wexu), writing a profile of Igor and anxious to soak up the experience and persona of the larger-than-life man.
The war is mainly obliquely referenced; expressed more through the emotional and psychological pressures of life during wartime on the characters. Love and the search for freedom in an atmosphere of political repression takes the form of a series of vignettes, shown mainly in the confines of a small kitchen and bedroom set within a Robert Leader's cage-like construction: a harsh cubic frame suggesting the iron bars of a cell.
Silvija Jestrovic's play takes on some disturbing flights. After Jestrovic left Yugoslavia in 1994, the play was translated from Serbian and reworked into a Canadian context (Jestrovic is now based in Toronto). Game show antics and sequences revealed as dreams, where actors leave the cage to roam around the audience, fill the play.
But the best moments happen in the recurring series of questions the characters ask of each other: "Do you love me? Do you think I'm stupid? Will you promise never to leave me?" Each time they are asked with each new pairing, and as the many pressures on them build, they assume a different meaning.
How successful Jestrovic was in making the experience of life 'over there' comprehensible to a Canadian audience is debatable. Perspective is everything, and as director Paulina B. Abarca notes: "Here in paradise, it is tough to grasp just how essential a humorous and ironic outlook is to the survival of independent thought."
The question of perspective is a central concern for the playwright and director: What is the role of art in a society of war and oppression? Some would say that for the characters of the play and those whom they represent, it must assume a more urgent—and dangerous—aspect. During the immigration interview, Igor is asked, "Did you take an active part in the Yugoslav war?", to which he replies, "Yes, I directed a play."
As with all Teesri Duniya productions, the themes spill out of the theatre. There's a mini-exhibit in the lobby and discussions on Sundays after the performance. It's a thought-provoking play, to say the least, and worth your consideration.
Noah's Ark 747 plays to November 3rd at MAI (Montréal Arts Interculturels)
3680 Jeanne Mance, Montreal
tickets/info: (514) 982-3386
group reservations - Sharon Schmerer: (514) 735-5468
[ photo of Adrian Burhop, left, and Howard Rosenstein courtesy Teesri Duniya Theatre. ]
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