There’s brotherhood here. Even if it is through killing.
Writing a play about Iraq is no easy task. Writing a play in protest of the war in Iraq is almost impossible to do successfully. Already you’re fighting a losing battle. The clichés and stereotypes already abound. Bombshells have been dropped on Bush over and over and over again. And littering a text with half-assed military references and war-speak has been tried, tested, and most of the time proven useless. We get it. The war sucks. People died. People are dying. Dying is bad, and fighting is bad, and killing is bad, and destroying a nation in the name of who knows what is bad.
The war in Iraq is bad.
The play I saw tonight is good. Quite good. Really good.
Now, I need to qualify good, because apparently “good” is not good enough. Unfortunately, I still need to absorb much of what I saw this evening, and it wouldn’t be fair to review the play without doing some deep thinking about it.
In the meantime, it is comforting to know that someone has actually been able to bypass all the bullshit and write a contemporary commentary on war and Iraq that is imminently relevant and appropriate. It is instantly both heart-wrenching and heady, and I encourage you to see it if you can.
The play is called Gas and is written by NTS graduate Jason Maghanoy. Directed by Guy Spring, it is presented by infinitheatre and is playing at Bain St-Michel here in Montreal. Check out their website.
Please, go see it.
Rabbi Jesse Paikin 