This is neither a pro-war or anti-war diatribe. The sole sympathetic diplomat (Ricky Waugh) notes that the question is not whether we should be there or should have gone there, but what do we do now that we are there. The issues of promises and responsibility resonate to raise questions about our premature desertion of the Iraqi people during the first Gulf War and even our government's callous abandonment of Jewish refugees in World War II — the topic of The Accomplices. Journalist George Packer served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Togo.
Based on his reportage for The New Yorker, George Packer has written a moving if unsubtle play about the Iraqis who worked for Americans in the early years of occupation
Theater review: Betrayed shows American callousness
By Bill Hirschman | Special Correspondent
August 22, 2008
A noose seems to tighten around the audience's neck as doom closes in on three Iraqis risking their lives to translate for unconcerned American diplomats in Baghdad in the GableStage's unsettling Betrayed.
By focusing on engaging, witty human beings with dreams of a better life, Betrayed sidesteps the didactic agitprop of message dramas such as GableStage's recent The Accomplices.
Based on his reportage for The New Yorker, George Packer has written a moving if unsubtle play about the Iraqis who worked for Americans in the early years of occupation but who the Americans abandon when sectarian violence threatened them as traitors.
Director Joe Adler and a fine cast suffuse the evening with the heartbreaking sense of people who gingerly dream of a future after Saddam's repression — despite a lifetime of proof that hope can be more fatal than pessimism. We grow fond of Adnan (John Manzelli) the idealist who loves English literature, Laith (Antonio Amadeo) who parrots American cliches and Metallica, and the courageous Intisar (Ceci Fernandez) who dreams of a gender equality that would allow her to ride a bicycle in the streets like her brothers.
We admire their patriotism, marvel at their resilience and mourn their justifiable disillusionment.
"Sometimes I feel like we are standing in a line waiting to die," one says.
This is neither a pro-war or anti-war diatribe. The sole sympathetic diplomat (Ricky Waugh) notes that the question is not whether we should be there or should have gone there, but what do we do now that we are there. The issues of promises and responsibility resonate to raise questions about our premature desertion of the Iraqi people during the first Gulf War and even our government's callous abandonment of Jewish refugees in World War II — the topic of The Accomplices.
The evening will leave you moved by the human tragedy and shamed beyond words that we are totally to blame for something that happened on our watch.
Bill Hirschman can be reached at muckrayk@aol.com.
The drama Betrayed is scheduled through Sept. 14.
Where: GableStage, Biltmore Hotel, 1200 Anastasia Ave., Coral Gables
When: 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday; 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday
Tickets: $37.50-$42.50; 305-445-1119 or gablestage.org
