The Overwhelming: A Play (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: Joseph Gasana, Mille Collines, Monsieur Geoffrey (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

 “A gripping political thriller . . . captures the sense of terror when the division between political discussion and murder is membrane-thin.” –Rachel Halliburton, Time Out London

 

"The theatre is a tribunal whose task is to present the bloody evidence and ask what you think of yourself as a member of the human race. I have seldom seen this task performed with such unprejudiced but devestating power." –John Peter, The Sunday Times

Product Description

As a middle-aged American academic who desperately needs to publish a book in order to gain tenure, Jack Exley leaps at the chance to go to Rwanda to write about his old college classmate Dr. Joseph Gasana, who has in the intervening years has specialized in treating children stricken by AIDS. But when Jack, along with his African-American second wife, Linda, and his disaffected teenage son, Geoffrey, arrive in Kigali in the fall of 1994, they are not only unable to find Joseph, they are unable to find anyone who will even admit to having known the Tutsi doctor. Befriended by both a cynical American diplomat and a perhaps too-helpful Hutu political powerbroker, Jack and his family slowly, then urgently, become enmeshed in the tension and terror, the professional risks and personal betrayals, that they ultimately realize mark the start of a genocidal war—a horror  that they can sense but cannot comprehend or control.
 
In The Overwhelming, J.T. Rogers has written a play that is both a brilliantly crafted piece of writing and a tense, suspenseful exploration of one of the great human tragedies of our time. It will have its U.S. premiere off-Broadway in November 2007.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Faber & Faber (October 2, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0865479747
• ISBN-13: 978-0865479746
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #393,715 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars a worthy new playwright, May 29, 2008

By	Jeffrey D. Messer (Asheville, NC United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As a playwright, I make it a point to look for and read new works that seem to be moving in a bolder and newer direction for the world of theatre.
This play was one I picked up on a whim, and one that I found to be everything I could have hoped for in a new work from a writer I had never heard of before.
The play is thought provoking, daring, insightful and refreshing all at once. As I read, I envisioned how to produce it on stage, seeing clearly the many possibilities for this piece.
If you are interested in works that stretch the boundaries that limit modern theatre, check out this play. You won't be disappointed.