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Guantanamo
Honor Bound to Defend Freedom
By Victoria Brittain & Gilliam Slovo
From spoken evidence
Directed by Nick Bowling
At Timeline Theatre
615 W. Wellington Ave.
Chicago, IL
Call 773-281-8463, tickets $15 - $25
Thursdays & Fridays at 8 PM
Saturdays at 4 & 8 PM
Sundays at 2 PM
Running time is 2 hours with intermission
Through March 26, 2006
Guantanamo is a scathing indictment of governmental abuse of human rights
Once more Timeline Theatre (this reviewer’s #1 non-Equity theatre company) proves that they mount excellent, thought-provoking theatre. Their latest, Guantanamo is a documentary style piece written from spoken interviews complete with photo slide show documentation by English writers Victoria Brittain and Gilliam Slovo focusing on five British citizens who spent 2 or more years detained and imprisoned by the United States military at Guantanamo, Cuba without due process of law.
This shocking indictment is told in personalized stories by actual former detainees now living in the UK. First produced in London in 2004 by Tricycle Theatre and told in first person accounts from interviews and public speeches and public records, Guantanamo is warning against the American and British government’s hysterical, incompetent and illegal capture, interrogation and imprisonment of Muslim Middle Eastern people without any due process of law in the name of ‘fighting terrorism.’ This shocking documentation of one of the worst abuses of power and infringement of personal and civil rights reminds me of the interment of Japanese-Americans during World War II and Lincoln’s utter disregard of the rule of law during the American Civil War.
It is amazing that once threatened, governments always seem to over react and are quick to curb personal freedoms and civil rights in the name of security and tranquility. Guantanamo puts a face on the victims, their families and coldly documents the 2 to 3 years of imprisonment suffered by five Muslim men who were scapegoats by the American and British governments in a vain attempt to stop terrorism. The age old balancing act between a society’s need for security and the rights of the individual to due process of law is clearly documented and names and faces are dramatically presented in this important, riveting piece. Imagine being imprisoned for years without a clue as to why and what for?
Timeline’s ensemble clearly outlined and documented the injustices done to the five representative “detainees.” The documentary style piece was amazingly free of exaggeration and unfolded not as propaganda but as an indictment of the incompetence and hysteria of American and British military.
One could argue that since there were “only” five victims documented in the play and Guantanamo had over 500 detainees, that it only represents a few “mistakes” by the government so the policy isn’t so bad. Well, abuse of one person by government threatens us all. They may start with Arab Muslims today and move toward other groups until we all lose our freedoms. Guantanamo got me to re-think our government’s policy and it’s war on terrorism. Rule of law, basic civil rights and human dignity must be adhered to at all times by governments as the best policy to insure our ultimate security.
Timeline Theatre’s docu-play was marvelously performed and smoothly directed to make an impact as a warning and a call to action. It is sad that not more people are concerned about the effects and threats that the gross disregard of the rule of law that Guantanamo vividly outlines. Apathy about human rights is our real enemy. Kudos to Timeline Theatre for mounting this wake-up call. Let the political debate commence.
Highly Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago Radio show
Date Reviewed February 12, 2006
Jeff Recommended
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