The University of Michigan Department of Theatre & Drama kicks off the year with a compelling and well-acclaimed drama, David Edgar’s “Pentecost”, a play that was originally commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company. The play opened on October 7th.
The theme for the play seems pretty intriguing. It is set in Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The drama is set in an unused church in an Eastern European country. A museum curator discovers a fresco which she believes may be valuable to restore her country’s image. She has many people vying for its ownership. Meanwhile, a group of refugees from various ethnicities take over the church and hold the historians hostage.The refugees share their woeful tales in their own language and the resulting confusion and interaction among the various characters forms the basis of the play.
Just one unknown foreign language can confuse us. Imagine Bulgarian, Arabic, Polish, Russian, Turkish, Sinhalese and others in the same play. That too without translation. Wow, that would be interesting!
Malcolm Tulip is the director of this challenging drama. It is a tough one as the acting has to be really good to convey what language can’t as surely the audience would not know all the languages! And the theme is significant too in context of multitude of immigrants trying to flee to countries with stable societies.
If you are wondering about the title of the play, it is from the Bible. The Holy Spirit descends over the Apostles and gives them different languages to converse. Surprisngly, the Apostles find that they can still understand each other and language is no longer a boundary. A very fit title for this drama indeed!
This will be the last week of the performances! So do catch the show.
Show times: Oct 15,16 @ 8 pm and Oct 17 @ 2 pm at the Arthur Miller Theatre
Tickets at the League Ticket Office!
