By Dwight Casimere
Mohegan playwright Madeline Sayet takes audiences on an inspired journey across centuries and continents in her one-woman play Where We Belong, now at Goodman’s Owen Theatre now through July 24. Directed by Mei Ann Teo, the play follows Sayet’s narrative voyage to England in 2015 to study Shakespeare, only to be confronted by both the physical and spiritual countenances of her Native ancestors from the 1700s and the present-day denial of colonialism and the centuries-old betrayal of countless treaties. All this is set against the impending dissolution of the European Union under threat of Brexit.
Sayet offers an avalanche of verbal images to describe the inner turmoil she endures on her painful and poignant journey. It is emotionally exhausting, yet exhilarating, as she peels away at layers of falsehoods and half-truths to embrace fragments of her heritage and the painful revelations of the past. At one point, she finds that the very tenants that were presented to her as facts of her ancestry were no more than half-truths or outright distortions. The revelation is yet another unsettling speed bump on her long journey of self-discovery.
Sayet gives a very real and heart-wrenching personal account of what it means to resurrect an identity in a world that has largely based its own reflections of history on a visualization that largely relegates her and her people into the shadows.
The production is enhanced by an exceptional design team, including Hao Bai (Production), Asa Benally (Costume), Erik Schilke (Original Composition and Sound), Vera Starbard (Dramaturgy), Liz Hayes (Dialect Coaching) and Judy Bowman (Casting). Broadway & Beyond Theatricals serves as Executive Producer.
Where We Belong is at the Owen Theatre now through July 24. Visit Goodmantheatre.org for tickets and information.
