The Part Played by Language in the Play The Overwhelming - Assignment Example

The Part Played by Language in the Play- The Overwhelming American playwright, J. T. Rogers has built up an amazing production delight- “The Overwhelming” simply by the power of his words. The whole play is centered on words, and language plays a major defining force. According to Paul Gallant, “Words create and overshadow identities.” This dramatic thriller provides a framework for discussions around pertinent social and global issues of race, class, culture hegemony, western supremacy and international relationship between developed and developing worlds. (Studio 180 Theatre/Study Guide for The Overwhelming, pg, 6). The inherent question of this play, “What Can I do” appears again and again on the forefront. The play is set in Rwanda in the tension filled period of 1994 just a few months ahead of the massive massacre in which 800,000 people were murdered in just about 100 days. Hence, the whole atmosphere is filled with tension and fear and this is reflected in the dialogues too. This is an English play that has several characters from different ethnic backgrounds. Hence, the English served to us are tinged with various accents. Apart from English, the play also has liberal doses of Rwandan and French and people are not expected to understand the latter. The audiences are not educated in the language, nor is any explanation or English translation of this foreign language presented to them. But, by the tone of the language they come to understand the seriousness of the situation. When the Rwandan characters speak in English they do so in a French-African accent. This is reflected in their spoken English. The play revolves around an American family that arrives in Kigali, Rwanda in the beginning of the year 1994. Coming in a volcanic situation they have to confront a life-and-death reality of Rwandan genocide. Jack Exley is a middle age academic who brings along his journalist second wife, Linda (an Afro-American) and his white 17 year old son, Geoffrey. For him this is an adventure trip and he wants his son to have a learning experience through it. He says- “I don’t want to raise another American who doesn’t question”, mentioning his students back home and their sense of entitlement. “This isn’t Sweden,” a U. S. embassy official tells him dryly. Jack has come for a reunion with his old college friend, Joseph who has made a name for himself in looking for a cure for AIDS found in small children. But, on his arrival he finds that his friend has disappeared without leaving any trace behind. No one there is willing to help him. There Jack Exley’s family gets divided by naiveté and misguided intention. There is an implicit tension filled with danger as this American family gets unwittingly involved and entangled in a multifarious sociopolitical maze that is fuelled by distrust and a long standing hatred. In this tension filled atmosphere the rhetorical question raised by Woolsey- “What are we protecting?” haunts us again and again. This question serves as a setting for other questions to be raised- all without getting an answer. In fact a U.N. official even warns Jack- “You’re seeking answers in a country you don’t know without a language to understand it.” Hence, the importance of language is once more reinforced. Just by the words spoken by Linda we find that we are thrust in different situations. When Linda says- “We do not belong here! This is not our problem!” we know that Linda is trying to convince her husband to return back to America and not interfere in the local political situation. The racist thought of America is revealed through her words- “Forgive me, but nobody in America even knows where Rwanda is. Do you know how much work it took to find a guidebook in English? Trust me: We don’t care about places we can’t find.” Her alertness to danger is revealed by her words- “We have a saying like that back home: (being a ghetto) Yo, watch your back”. Again when actually faced by danger then she tries to convince the people that she is no different from the local crowd. She says- “I mean, look at me! I look like you. For once I’m not ‘the other’”. Here we find that labeling a group of people as “the other” can lead to violence, war and even genocide. ( Studio 180 Theatre/Study Guide for the Overwhelming, pg 10) The anguish of the local people is revealed through different words of the locals. A Rwandan policeman shows his anger- “And now these foreigners, they have made our president that spineless Habyarimana, grovel and give them our land. They are killing my beautiful, beautiful country. You and your UN and your Bill Clinton, you do not know this. Why does Bill Clinton not know this?” We find traces of colonialism through various speeches such as the one spoken by Elise Kayitesi- “Here most of us are Hutu. But if you look at us, you cannot even tell from which group we are. Before the Belgians came, Joseph says, ‘Tutsi was just the word for anyone with power; ‘Hutu’ was the word for anyone without.” The fear and hatred of the fellow human being is shown through the conversation between Geoffrey and Joseph- Geoffrey: Why is everyone killing each other? Joseph: Rats and cats, cats and rats. Geoffrey: That one doesn’t really translate. Joseph: For the rat, there is no animal more dangerous than the cat. It is all he sees, all he thinks of. Because the cat, he spends each day trying to kill the rat. For if he does not, and the rats become more and more, who will be their hunter then? It is not hatred that drives us both, it is fear. We are trapped in a cycle. Prisoners of each other. Conclusion Thus, we find that J. T. Rogers is a great wordsmith and he has created a brilliantly written play just by molding and using the words to their greatest capabilities. He has laid great stress on accent, pronunciation and various niches of the voice. Not a single word is out of place and every bit of conversation helps in taking the play to its phenomenal heights. Work Cited J. T. Rogers. The Overwhelming. Simon Saltzman. A CurtainUP Raiser. The Overwhelming. Web: http://www.curtainup/overwhelming.html Studio 180 Theatre/Study Guide for The Overwhelming. Paul Gallant. Shake Free From the Devil: J. T. Rogers’ The Overwhelming Explores Pre- Dallaire Rwanda. Web: March 3. Read More