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Because there's less pressure to attract mass audiences and less fiscal risk, live theater can more closely regard "The Other." No play -- or any other piece of recent art -- crosses as many frontiers as Tony Kushner's Homebody / Kabul, which has garnered raves and rants since its debut. The play takes place primarily in Afghanistan under Taliban rule, not long after America bombed the country in 1998. It even mentions Osama bin Laden, but it was written before Sept. 11 and premiered in New York after the Taliban was already out of power.
Kushner's play depicts multiple collisions between the West, represented by a British housewife and her family, and the Mideast. It alludes to tribal conflicts older than the United States itself and considers different types of religious experience, from the brutal orthodoxy of the Taliban to a transcendent moment at the grave of Cain.
In his afterward to the play's 2002 published edition, Kushner dismisses claims of his "eerie prescience": "The information required to see, long before 9/11, at least the broad outline of serious trouble ahead was so abundant and easy of access that even a playwright could avail himself of it."
Though written before Sept. 11, Homebody / Kabul puts subsequent art to shame. Kushner's willingness to address politically explosive material and challenge mainstream assumptions provides clarity at a time of cultural confusion.
Since 9/11, the Office of Homeland Security has urged American citizens to maintain a state of "heightened awareness," to be vigilant for potential threats hiding beneath the status quo. In the post-9/11 era, the true artists will maintain their heightened awareness all the time.
Curt Holman is Film and Theater Editor for Creative Loafing in Atlanta. Timothy C. Davis contributed to this article.
Queen City Statements
A necessarily short list
In Charlotte, artistic response to the post-9/11 world of "homeland security" and "shock and awe" has been rather slow, albeit steady, in evolving. Besides the aforementioned works by Jacqueline Heer and Malek, here is a look at some "artistic statements" from Charlotte-area artists striving to share the state of their unions, and the resulting action, if any.
Poetry:
The Charlotte-based literary website The Pedestal Magazine (www.thepedestalmagazine.com) issued an extra-large post-9/11 edition featuring work from Charlotte area poets and writers as well as work from writers around the nation.
Music:
Hope Nicholls and Co. gave us the Charlotte music scene's biggest response yet with "War Charlotte." The multimedia event took place at the Steeple Lounge, with the aim to "incorporate music and other arts to spur community dialogue about the war in Iraq." The event wasn't overtly slanted to the left or the right -- Nicholls and her collaborators say they strove only to create dialogue and get people involved no matter their allegiances. Proceeds benefited the American Red Cross, the American Civil Liberties Union and the United Way. Among the artists showing their works were Dudley Collins, Dorne Pentes, Scott Weaver and Jack Pentes. Musicians included Don Dixon, Jr. James and the Late Guitar, John Morris, Benji Hughes and many others.
Theatre and Dance:
Locally, response has been minimal, outside of a benefit event at Swing 1000 about a week after 9/11, which featured ex-Charlotte Rep honcho Keith Martin bringing the cast of Damn Yankees by to pitch in.
Omnium-Gatherum recently premiered at the Humana Festival in Louisville and will open Off-Broadway early next year. The play features a terrorist (played by Charlotte's Robert Simmons) and the ghost of a World Trade Center victim among dinner guests at a party hosted by a Martha Stewart-like character.
-- Timothy C. Davis with Perry Tannenbaum
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