There’s been a steady trickle of theater pieces about the war and the US occupation in Iraq over the past few years, but surprisingly little when one considers how long that particular quagmire has dragged on and its immense cost in human lives over nearly five years now. The invasion has been characterized by an odd disconnect in which it’s all too easy for people at home to go about their business and forget that people are still dying in our name in Iraq, with no end in sight. And what’s theater for if not to wake us up?
A documentary theater piece dreamed up and directed by City College of San Francisco drama instructor John Wilk, Aftermath of War: in their own words is the result of a four-month research project in which a group of acting students pored over blogs, articles, and books by and about US soldiers serving in Iraq and their families, and then conducted interviews of their own. Among the voices represented in thirty monologues are activist Cindy Sheehan; Rear Admiral Stuart Franklin Platt; Iraq Veterans Against the War writing workshop participant Drew Cameron; and soldier Brian Turner, author of the debut poetry collection Here, Bullet. Originally performed last August at CCSF, Aftermath continues at the Julia Morgan for a three-weekend run, presented under the aegis of Wilk’s own San Francisco Theatre Project. Aftermath of War plays Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 7:30 p.m., January 12 through 27, at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts (2640 College Ave., Berkeley). Tickets are $15 to $20, available at 925-798-1300 or WillowsTickets.org.
