Heads

Something a little different...

An American playwright, EM Lewis, has written a play about a group of hostages in Iraq titled 'Heads.' The play features four characters separated as two pairs of hostages. The first pair are a journalist named Michael Apres and a photojournalist named Jack Velazquez. The second pair are a British embassy worker, Caroline Conway, and an American engineer, Harold Wolfe. I thought it was interesting the playwright chose only civilians for her characters.

Synopsis of the play:

'Heads' is the story of a British Embassy worker, an American engineer, a network journalist and a freelance photographer who are being held captive in Iraq; as death draws close, each hostage must decide what he’ll do to survive.

Denver Post has a review up although it's not clear what the reviewer really felt about the play - to see or not to see - it's not clear.

Review: "Heads" explores how hostages cope
By Angela Clemmons, The Denver Post, October 16, 2009

It's strange to say that a play about hostages in Iraq could be entertaining, but EM Lewis' "Heads" at the Victorian Playhouse is a gripping fictional drama that raises important questions about our times.

Susan Lyles directs the And Toto Too production to brutal depths. But what could have been a deeply political piece instead ends up a play about coping with current events. Who or what is it we reach for when it seems all hope is lost? What small gestures give us solace? Is optimism a better mechanism than pessimism, or the other way around?

The playwright's blog, Players to Broken Stones, has some production photos:

Coming up next: HEADS in Denver!
September 25, 2009

More Pictures from Heads in Denver
October 14, 2009

PS I've created a new label, 'drama', to cover theater, film and tv productions that touch on Iraq hostages.