{"id":11052,"date":"2019-10-24T14:26:51","date_gmt":"2019-10-24T14:26:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/laughfrodisiac.com\/?p=11052"},"modified":"2019-10-24T14:26:53","modified_gmt":"2019-10-24T14:26:53","slug":"our-lady-of-kibeho-at-stratford-east-super-interesting-story-super-uneven-tone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/laughfrodisiac.com\/2019\/10\/24\/our-lady-of-kibeho-at-stratford-east-super-interesting-story-super-uneven-tone\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Lady of Kibeho at Stratford East: Super Interesting Story, Super Uneven Tone"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
It\u2019s Theatre Thursday!\nToday\u2019s show is Our Lady of Kibeho, playing at <\/em>London<\/em>\u2019s <\/em>Stratford<\/em> East theatre until Nov. 2, when I imagine\nthe Virgin Mary will appear to burn it all down.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Like the Catholic Church doesn\u2019t have enough bad PR going\nfor it. If I didn\u2019t know any better, I\u2019d say Our Lady of Kibeho<\/em>, the 2014 play written by Katori Hall, was a hit\njob to make sensible people hate the church\u2019s reps even more vehemently. Faaack,\nthose are some assholes on that stage! If you can get past how absolutely awful\n98% of the characters are, you may enjoy Kibeho<\/em>\nas it tells the true story (I mean as true a story as people seeing visions of\nthe Virgin Mary can be, no offense but what) of the girls at Kibeho college in\nRwanda who saw said visions of the virgin in 1981. Mary showed them predictions\nof the coming Rwandan genocide, which is incredibly harrowing and infuriating\nthat no one believed them and did anything to stop it, but then again what\ncould they have done to stop it? (Also, query whether it was a self-fulfilling\nprophesy? Dark.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Kibeho<\/em>,\nAlphonsine (a very winning Taz Munya), whose father I assume is named Alphonso\nbecause otherwise why, but also even if that\u2019s the reason oof, has\nseizure-inducing visions of the Virgin Mary (you don\u2019t know this but in my head\nI\u2019m saying it \u2018wirgin\u2019 because I just watched a video of a German man\nspeaking). Of course, nobody believes her, because organized religion is\nlargely composed of unbelievably shitty people (see, e.g., 98% of churches in America;\nthe aforementioned Catholic church; &c.). The Father and Sister and Bishop\nof the school yell at her, which is some BULLSHIRT. Your entire thang is based\non just believing what you\u2019re supposed to believe because you, well, just\nBELIEVE (see, e.g. The Book of Mormon<\/em>\nfor this sentence put to music) and instead of believing her or really even\nasking if the girl who keeps having seizures is okay, ffs, you yell at her and\nsic the meanest mean girls in school on her instead? WHY ARE PEOPLE. Ugh I was\nso, so angry for most of this show, wanting to sprint up to that stage and\npunch Sister Evangelique (suchhh a Pose<\/em>\nhouse name!) and Marie-Claire in the face and the Bishop man in their mean\nfaces. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Luckily (?), another girl, Anathalie (I honestly kept\nthinking they were saying \u2018ah, Natalie\u2019 every time) starts having the visions\ntoo. They still get bullied and no one else believes them and the other mean\ngirls beat them? and the Sister Pose torments them? I do not get how any of\nthese people can make a claim to be close to god but alas, that\u2019s organized\nreligion. Anyway, luckily (?) Marie-Claire, the Regina George of Rwanda but\nmeaner, starts seeing the visions too and seizuring all about that beeyatch, so\nthe Vatican\ncomes a-calling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, holy shit, truly holy shit, is the Vatican\nrep the worst man ever. Katori Hall is SAYING SOME SHIT with this muhfucka. He\nliterally stabs the girls during their visions because if they were really\nhaving religious visions, they wouldn\u2019t feel pain or whatever. SURE SEEMS\nLEGIT. Must he, MUST he stab them in the chest for this test? Not the arm? Even\nthe leg? But the chest? As exasperating as that question is (my heart was\npounding louder than the show), I have another one for you \u2013 what kind of\nmonsters tasked with being in charge of these girls (the sister, the father,\nthe bishop, inter alia assorted fuckers) allows this to happen? UGH THIS IS HOW\nWE GOT HERE. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Anyway, aside from the fury raging like flames, flames, flames, on the side of my face, this show is pretty interesting. There are scenes, especially the ends of each act, where I was completely swept up in the onstage action, completely oblivious to my loud heart and the loud people around me. There are moments of brilliance, especially among the girls. However, the adults, especially the men, were uniformly weak, but more importantly oddly directed by James Dacre. Instead of sticking to what made sense for their characters (sure they can be total assholes, that\u2019s normal in all plays, but make it make sense in the show), so many lines were delivered as cheap laugh grabs, when it made no sense for the story or the character. Sure, the audience loved it \u2013 audience love cheap laugh grabs; they do work \u2013 but it took me out of the story and made me into my favorite gif, the one of the little blonde toddler making a \u2018what the hell?\u2019 face. I was mimicking that amazing toddler for way too much of this show, at so many confusing, bizarre line deliveries, when it could have otherwise been pretty strong and cohesive, and of course unsettling and disturbing since we know what came next. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n INFORMATION<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The show is playing at Stratford East, east of London\nby the Olympic Park, until November 2. There are 4 stalls in the ladies toilet.\nThe stalls are single rows (no center aisle) so if you get claustro get\nlower-numbered seats (those are nearer the side by the exit. I had an aisle\nseat of course but on the wrong side, oops). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s Theatre Thursday! Today\u2019s show is Our Lady of Kibeho, playing at London\u2019s Stratford East theatre until Nov. 2, when I imagine the Virgin Mary will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11053,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[147],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"yoast_head":"\n