DOGS OF RWANDA, directed by Frances Hill and Peter Napolitano. This limited engagement at Urban Stages (259 West 30th Street), begins performances on Friday, March 9, opens on Monday, March 12 and will run through Saturday, March 31, 2018. Tickets for are $35 ($25 during previews; $50 on opening and $15 student rush) and may be purchased via OvationTix at www.urbanstages.org or by phone at 1.866.811.4111.
16-year-old David finds himself in Uganda as a church missionary. He follows the girl of his dreams into the woods as the Rwandan genocide erupts. 20 years later and half a world away, he still can’t escape what happened and publishes a book on the events. When a note arrives reading, “There are untruths here,” David finds himself back in those woods with the boy he tried to save, in a journey towards redemption and forgiveness.

In Urban Stages’ solo show Dogs of Rwanda a character who was witness to the 100 days of genocide in Rwanda struggles with the isolation that such knowledge brings. With exquisite writing by Sean Christopher Lewis, the play seeks to show us that though historically human beings have been willing to attack one another for the color of their skin, they can also provide comfort and solace in community. At the play’s opening we meet a man named David Zosia, played with passion by Dan Hodge, a writer who has written a book about the Rwandan genocide entitled “Letters From the Red Hill”. David asks the audience in attendance to bear witness to his story. He speaks of a Rwandan ceremony, a ceremony of community, where each member admits their guilt, acknowledging their story for absolution. David is also recording this ceremony for his former flame, Mary Jess, a young woman David knew at the time he wrote his account of the Rwandan genocide. Then, he briefly tells us of his current girlfriend, Amy, who leaves him during a Hawaiian vacation because try as he might, he cannot shake his sorrow at a note he has received from a man back in Rwanda, named God’s Blessing. God’s Blessing has sent …Read more