Iati Theater

A new female-centered experimental play about trauma and how healing begins with the most intimate self to reverberate through dimensions of time and being, written and co-directed by Andrea Goldman.  Julia Watt and Goldman co-direct a cast of five, including George Bass*, Shashwat Gupta, Neysa Lozano, Rachel Schmeling and Heaven Stephens*.  

Set in New York City during Hurricane Sandy, Sal finds herself trapped in a flooding bodega alongside a local girl named Ome. This claustrophobic setting will become Sal’s canvas to rapidly flow, like the fast winds that menace the building, in a journey of self-discovery while facing the ghosts from the past and the dreads of the future. Between boxed wine, ayahuasca and maybe a séance, it is disaster that brings us closer together and true intimacy is found when we least expect it.

Challenging the traditional (and usually male established) dramatic structure, Hurricane Sleep is a female-centered piece that explores the complexity of identity when the most intimate parts of the human mind – dreams, longings, and memories –run free and become tangible. The flow of movement and language uses specific Holistic Actor techniques to bring the narrative to a visceral place.

“About both personal and collective healing, I also see Hurricane Sleep as a metaphor for something larger: the rupturing rage and anger of our natural world--the Earth, our mother, the divine feminine rebelling from centuries of exploitation in the form of droughts, hurricanes, rising temperatures, floods,” stated playwright Andrea Goldman. “She’s been battered, beaten and raped long enough. On a meta-level the play harkens to our relationship with the natural world—the ultimate goddess, the great mother, of whom we are all a part.”

*Appearing courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association. AEA Showcase.

Inspired by a real Somali terrorist event, A Man Like You is a conversation between a British hostage, Patrick North, and his Somali captor Abdi, set in a windowless concrete room in Somalia. Elizabeth, North’s wife provides a counter-point to the story, from the Norths’ house in Nairobi.  A Man Like You illustrates the world views of two men who come from different circumstances and hold completely different philosophies, which they discuss over the course of North’s captivity of 102 days. They debate good and evil, power and control, who is a terrorist and who is not, and what is God, and in so doing they challenge our own deeply-held views. In a heroic struggle, Abdi and North rarely agree their basic humanity connects them.  Can they come to realize they are more alike than they initially believe?

Yudelka Heyer directs a cast of 4, including Jenny Boote, Andrew Clarke, Jeffrey Marc, and Matthew Stannah.  

​A Man Like You is inspired by the events of 21st September 2013, when Somali men from the terrorist group Al Shabaab opened fire on shoppers at the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, killing at least 67. Following the tragic attack, the perpetrators were often referred to as 'animals' and 'inhuman', and indeed it was hard to feel they were anything different when the CCTV footage of them blowing civilians away in cold blood was released. ​ ​However, the same footage also showed them washing their feet and praying in the aisles of Nakumatt supermarket where most of the victims died.  This served as a powerful reminder that although their actions are repulsive, those terrorists and hundreds others like them all over the world have a rationale for their actions, with which the world basically refuses to engage. We do not really want to look inside the mind of a terrorist and properly understand what motivates him; it may be uncomfortable, painful and worse, we may discover that in some ways we even identify with their truth. 

About the Company: RED Soil Productions

 

RED Soil Productions is an African/Caribbean inspired theatre/film company founded by Matthew Stannah (Nairobi, Kenya) and Yudelka Heyer (Dominican Republic). This company’s mission is to showcase new, innovative work that brings about new ways to share vivid stories, in which pain and struggle is brought to life in the form of art. Their goal is to shed light on stories that are not often told, to inspire their audiences and shake them with the vulnerability and truth of each character that is brought to life on the stage/film. Awakening American culture with stories never heard before, stories one could never dream of hearing, stories using raw, real life material uncovered after so many years. RED Soil Productions delves deep into a sacred, misunderstood world that the theatre/film-goer never knew existed. The companies hope is to bring these untouched, unrefined stories of love, heartbreak, bravery, and soul from the writer’s pen to the raw sancrite world we call art.