Sense Of An Ending

Sense Of An Ending

Image by Theatre 503

Daniel Nelson

Writing a play about the Rwandan genocide – about any genocide – is not easy. Nor is watching it. But write and watch we must because it’s part of remembering.

Remembering the mass murder in Rwanda over 100 days in 1994 is particularly important because most of the world chose to ignore it (and a few countries were complicit in it). The West had no mining, economic or strategic interests there. The US had recently been burnt in Somalia. UN officials – including secretary-general-to-be Kofi Annan – allowed geopolitics and inertia to stifle compassion. Foreign correspondents had their eyes on the historic majority rule election in South Africa and two African stories at the same time was considered indigestible for readers.

Even Ken Urban’s Sense Of An Ending at London’s Theatre 503 takes place five years after the post-Holocaust declarations of “Never Again” had been proved worthless in central Africa. It’s 1999 and an African American New York Times reporter is exorcising his own demons by chasing a story about a forthcoming trial of nuns accused of homicide and involvement in crimes against humanity.

Getting their version of events, showing their innocence, could be a scoop that restores his newsroom reputation. But recollections of past occurrences are slithery, shape-shifting affairs, particularly when lives are at stake, when motives are mixed and notoriously hard to pin down, and when fresh evidence sheds a different light on explanations and interpretations (“All I want is the truth.” “You have come to the wrong place, my friend, if you are looking for truth.”)

It will be a relief when we can dispense with the tired device of a Western journalist asking questions and driving the plot, and there’s little on-stage action. But after an initial clunkiness of exposition to make sure the audience has got basic information about the genocide (“Look, here are the facts. Five years ago, President Habyrarimana’s plane is shot down, killing him and everyone else on board…”) it maintains a crisp pace through series of short, fast-paced scenes.

Play and production stand on their own merits: good writing, good acting, good direction. It’s story-telling theatre, not earnest didacticism. Once again I am struck by how strong current theatre is in terms of quality and variety of content compared with the yawn-inducing TV obsession with crime and spy thrillers.

And I can’t help emphasising that as well as being gripping, the play is a reminder to be vigilant. The Rwandan genocide was not random bloodlust: it was a carefully planned pogrom. We can educate ourselves about what happened – which this play helps us do, show solidarity with survivors and watch out for warning signs in our own societies.

Signs such as the recent comment by Katie Hopkins in The Sun: Make no mistake, these migrants are like cockroaches.”

Hopkins is a remarkably silly controversialist even by our debased standards of empty “personalities” and amoral media, but we need to know that when people refer to others as “cockroaches” they are not just trying to make themselves famous for a day but are echoing a key word from the Rwandan genocide. If we don’t pick up early on such warning signs and shout against them, we will share the blame for the inhumane policies and actions that may well ensue.

·         Sense Of An Ending is at Theatre 503,  above the Latchmere Pub, 503 Battersea Park Road, SW11,  until 6 June, £15/£12 (pay what you can Sundays). Info: 7978 7040

·         Also playing in London: No Feedback, immersive theatre experience that encourages participants to think about the social dynamics that enable genocide, organised in partnership with the Aegis Trust, Genocide Watch and the Anne Frank Trust, £12, Theatre Delicatessen, 119 Farringdon Road, EC1, until 6 June. Info: 7278 7694 

 

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