I love the question “what is terrorism?” I love the debate between non-violent activism and militant activism, between the hippies and the Weather Underground, between Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X. I love that the theater is a place where we can explore these philosophical differences, and I am pro-Political Theater.
But this was some bullshit.
The script was fine. Not amazing, but not horrible. The acting was fine – the performers were solid, but not so strong that they could make an OK script compelling. But I was with them, I was following them on their journey as they executed some left-wing organization’s plan to plant bombs in the building where the IMF and WTO were meeting, and I was right there with them when they came back to their hotel room after planting the bombs, turned on the television, and watched the events of September 11th, 2001, unfold. (This, by the way, is where the play should have started. This is the crux of the question the play is asking, and we only spent seven minutes on it.)
And then! We hear actual audio from a New York newscast on September 11, 2001. The newscaster’s shocked silence, the struggle to find words, the heartbreaking eyewitness interviews. And we watch our OK actors react to the news. Now, this should be an incredible moment, watching these people, who have just planted b0mbs under a building, react to what’s happening in Manhattan. But to play actual audio from that day is a cheap trick. Because we immediately stop caring about what you’re doing on stage. If you’re me, you’re smelling that burning smell that emanated from lower Manhattan for weeks after the attacks. If you’re me, you’re hearing sirens and fighter jets and helicopters and then a strange silence – New York is never silent.
That is some PTSD-triggering shit, and it’s a fucking cop-out. It would have been way more interesting to have no audio, and to just watch the actors react to the news. To let them show us, instead of tell us.
Better luck next time, guys.
