The new North Lawndale home of Theatre_Y opens with Jackie Sibblies Drury's blistering meta meditation on colonialism and genocide, We Are Proud to Present . . . | ✍️ Dmitry Samarov
We Are Proud to Present . . .To break in their new North Lawndale space, Kezia Waters directs Theatre Y’s production of Jackie Sibblies Drury’s 2012 meta meditation on colonialism, genocide, and racial trauma. Structured as a rehearsal for a play about the massacre of the Herero people of Namibia by the German occupying forces in the years preceding World War I, it is in fact a barely veiled exploration of racial dynamics in the U.S.
We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as South West Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-1915, free, but reservations requested The strength of this piece is the emotional truth of the intractable dynamic between subjugated peoples and those who oppress them. There are no letters home from the Herero because theirs was a largely oral tradition, and the Germans obliterated generations, thereby severing the storytelling thread that kept the culture alive. The pain evoked onstage by this talented ensemble is palpable, and the sparse set leaves little place to hide or seek refuge or comfort.
My one hesitation or question is about the implication that the events in Namibia over a hundred years ago are a direct one-to-one mirroring of the racial dynamic in the U.S. in 2023. Three-quarters of the way through the running time, a German flag is positioned at center stage with U.S. flags to its left and right, and the play’s dramatic peak features a lynching noose.
The heart of the piece is a tone-perfect summoning of the grief caused by the subjugation of one tribe by another. But the blurring of historic particulars may lessen the potential impact of a presentation aiming for catharsis through fire. Suffering is suffering, but making distinctions and keeping particular times and places intact doesn’t lessen the impact; it can only enhance it.
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