Written and directed by: Julie Ruffell
Reviewed by Jess Wind
Cast: Eli Mores, Ashley Gonzales Rivas, Delaney Bergstrom
Plays again:
Friday, April 25 at 8:40 p.m.
Sunday, April 27 at 4:00 p.m.
The first thing you will notice is the set: a table placed down centre stage laid out with skulls. The music kicks up to a recording from the Rwandan genocide, bullets are fired and the lights come up —it is 20 years later. God Sleeps in Rwanda takes the audience to a place where memory and forgiveness are at odds. The script, an original piece in this year’s festival, attempts to compress an immense topic into thirty minutes, while still making it personal and emotional. It accomplishes this through lengthy monologues —some more successful than others, but always providing the audience with a mix of historical context and raw emotion to cling to. The sound design does well to set the tone and setting, but the real shining moment comes out of the performances. Gonzalez-Rivas in particular handles the material maturely and carefully, allowing the brevity of the show’s topic to have a lasting effect on its audience.
Memorable lines:
“I could hurt him by denying him peace.”
“I cannot properly grieve because I do not have bodies to mourn.”
