World Premiere Play What I Heard About Iraq
Fountain Theatre (Los Angeles, CA)
The stage version of Eliot Weinberger's provocative article, What I Heard About Iraq is made up of direct quotes from politicians, military chiefs, U.S. soldiers and Iraqi citizens to explore the unfolding human story behind the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Featuring a multi-ethnic cast of five actors portraying multiple roles, the fully-staged production also interweaves multi media sounds and images from real news footage.
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More Details About What I Heard About Iraq
Quotes & Highlights
- "Superb! Stunning! Compelling! ... Fierce in its antiwar blow... Levy's razor-sharp staging features superb production elements [with a] keenly calibrated ensemble... Levy is clearly a man on a mission." Recommended --LA Times
- Recommended-- LA Weekly
More Information
As the war in Iraq rages on and the death toll rises daily, the Fountain Theatre will present WHAT I HEARD ABOUT IRAQ (A Cry For 5 Voices), the World Premiere stage version of Eliot Weinberger's provocative article, "What I Heard About Iraq." Adapted for the stage and directed by Simon Levy, the new play opens Sunday, September 11, at 2pm and 7pm, marking the 4th anniversary of the World Trade Center tragedy. The play will run through October 9. Previews are September 8, 9 and 10. There will be a post-show discussion following every performance.
Like the Weinberger article - which first appeared in Fellowship Magazine in the U.S. and the London Review of Books in the U.K. - and is being published in September by New Directions, WHAT I HEARD ABOUT IRAQ utilizes actual direct quotes from politicians, military chiefs, U.S. soldiers and Iraqi citizens to explore the unfolding human story behind the U.S. invasion of Iraq. By revealing what was said and what is being said about our involvement in the war, both the truth and the lies are unmasked.
Says director and adaptor Simon Levy: "The play is neither fiction nor speculation. It takes us into the war and confronts us with the human drama, the human toll. This is not about history or about something going on 'over there.' This is about what's going on here, in America, now."
Featuring a multi-ethnic cast of five actors portraying multiple roles, the fully-staged production also interweaves multi media sounds and images from real news footage. Levy has written three additional renditions of the piece - including a version for Voices only - which the Fountain Theatre has made available to theatres, schools, advocacy groups and human rights organizations worldwide. "It can be done as a reading, a fund-raiser or as a full-blown production," says Levy.
Readings are set at the New York Theatre Workshop, the International Literature Festival in Berlin, Center Stage in Baltimore, the Connecticut Peace Coalition, New Haven, and at the Charter Oak Cultural Center in Hartford, CT. Dozens of other theatres and political organizations in the U.S. and worldwide are formulating plans to either produce or give readings of the play.
Produced by the Fountain's co-artistic director Stephen Sachs, the cast features Marc Casabani, Yaphet Enge, Darcy Halsey, Tony Pasqualini, Bernadette Speakes and Ryun Yu. The design team includes Scott Siedman (sets), Kathi O'Donohue (lighting), Dave Marling (sound) and Daniel Seidner (multi-media).
Simon Levy most recently produced the Fountain Theatre's multi-award winning production of Athol Fugard's Exits and Entrances. He has directed many of the Fountain's award-winning, critically acclaimed productions, including Master Class, Daisy In The Dreamtime (at Inside The Ford), Going To St. Ives, Orpheus Descending, The Night of the Iguana and Summer and Smoke. He wrote the stage adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is The Night (PEN USA ward for Drama) and also adapted and directed Fitzgerald's The Last Tycoon. He has recently adapted The Great Gatsby.