The Overwhelming

“I am only translating, you understand,” is a key line repeated in the stunning international horror story The Overwhelming, and it might as well be emblazoned on a banner arcing over the stage. Playwright J.T. Rogers—a virtually unknown local writer who was effectively discovered by London’s National Theatre—has done a phenomenal job of cultural interpretation. Fascinated by the 1994 Rwandan genocide, Rogers set about learning the language, land and politics, then relayed them in his gripping polyglot play, set weeks before the catastrophe. All the while, he reminds us that this is only a version, and that sense of filter is what makes The Overwhelming such potent and jolting political theater.Crucially, Rwanda is seen through American eyes—those of Jack Exley (Sam Robards), a tenure-hungry professor who has come to Kigali to write a book about a doctor (Ron Cephas Jones) treating children for HIV. Once Exley settles in with his estranged son (Michael Stahl-David) and African-American second wife (Linda Powell), he cannot find a trace of his subject and quickly discovers that Rwanda is perched on the brink of a bloody civil war. His family learns the same through their intimate, complex interaction with locals.

Rogers skillfully rations out information about the impending human-rights disaster amid human-interest material so that his characters never become humorless mouthpieces or straw men. Staged with keen, bustling verve by Max Stafford-Clark and performed by a fantastic ensemble (including Boris McGiver as a suave French diplomat and a jittery NGO worker), The Overwhelming is the sort of smart, complacency-rattling topical drama we should produce on a regular basis to deserve the name of citizens. Then again, that’s just me translating.