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"The Witness" is a searing drama about deception and families torn apart by war, says People Productions artistic director Richard Scharine.
"With a tremendous amount of humor," he adds.
The local African-American-focused theater company offers a regional premiere of playwright Vivienne Franzmann's play, which debuted at London's Royal Court Theatre in 2012. Scharine saw that production and pursued the script for his Salt Lake City company.
"Franzmann writes in cut-off speeches — it's hard for anyone to get through a single line — and she has a great comic rhythm, and at the same time she can use it to leave you with your jaw hanging," the director says. "You have scenes that have a comic structure about absolutely terrible things."
The psychologically dense story — all of the play's three characters are antiheroes — hinges on a famous war photograph of a baby girl in Rwanda reaching across a pile of dead bodies toward her slain mother. The photograph was taken during the country's 1994 genocide, when more than 800,000 people were slaughtered in a three-month period.
Joseph (Andrew Maizner), an acclaimed war photojournalist, was compelled to make the graphic image.
Joseph thinks if he could make the right picture, he could stop the horrors of this war. Yet after years of witnessing the world's most horrific conflicts, he can no longer just observe.
And then, in an instance that will change many lives, Joseph scoops up the baby. He takes the girl home to England and adopts her, naming her Alex.
Twenty years later, Alex, (Michaela Johansen), now a young college student, sees the image that changed her life in a class about religious iconography. She seeks out the negative and learns the photo had been cropped, and what wasn't caught in the frame raises troubling questions.
Joseph isn't able to shield her from seeing Simon (Calbert Beck), a surprise visitor from her homeland who claims to be her brother. His visit causes Alex to feel tragically torn between her middle-class home and the war-ravaged country where she was born.
"It's about a moment in time when you do something, and then you have to live with it for the rest of your life," Scharine says.
The production reunites Johansen and Beck, who worked together in the company's production of "Sunset Baby" last July, another gritty contemporary play about the aftermath of revolutionary choices.
"Sunset Baby" marked the first stage turn for Beck, a charismatic former track star and standout University of Utah football player whose athletic career was cut short by concussions. He remade his life, returning to the U. to finish his degree, and now is an inspiring first-grade teacher in Murray. And an aspiring actor.
facebook.com/ellen.weist —
'The Witness'
People Productions presents Vivienne Franzmann's searing "The Witness," calling it "a play about family, love, deception and death."
When • Aug. 4-14, 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, with 2 p.m. matinées on Sundays. An additional 2 p.m. matinée is Aug. 12.
Where • Sugar Space Arts Warehouse, 132 S. 800 West, Salt Lake City
Tickets • $15; $10 students/seniors at the door; reservations at peopleproductions.org