Three contemplative individuals each inhabit their respective territory inside an art gallery. Without interacting, the boundaries between them are marked by immediate character distinctions and a background of appropriately abstract canvasses.
Irena (Carey Van Driest) is a buoyant Muslim woman from a town in Eastern Europe. She rejoices in the closeness and reliability of her farming community and describes a day's events in which a local wedding takes place. Hans (Timothy Carter) is an inexperienced member of The International, a peace-keeping unit assigned with protecting the same town from encroaching militia forces. At first optimistic, his story chronicles a catastrophe for which he and his fellow soldiers are fatefully ill-equipped. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Dave (Ted Schneider) is an unemployed artist whose unraveling anxiety results in him waging bets with his extended family upon the outcome of the townspeople's plight. This is watched with a disturbing and yet all too familiar detachment via the television's perpetual live news feed. His aim, if he wins, is to take his wife and child to Disneyland.
The International, written by Irish playwright Tim Ruddy and directed by Christopher Randolph, is inspired by the 1995 Srebenica massacre in Bosnia in which over eight thousand Muslim Bosniaks were slaughtered. Despite the presence of United Nations Peace Forces, their protective mission was tragically feeble due to poor logistics and bureaucratic mismanagement. As Irena describes the unfolding events, from innocent celebration to genocide, the juxtaposition of rape, murder and mutilation and the futility of Hans' position as an ineffectual bystander present a horrifying contrast. Back in L.A., Dave becomes increasingly conflicted by the human suffering on the TV news and the financial need to win his bet.
Winner of Best Playwright (Ruddy) and Best Actress (Van Dreist) at Origin Theater Company's 1st Irish Festival in 2013, The International, presented by Urbanite Theatre, is a tense, moving, first-rate drama. Randolph is judicious in his direction. The staging and pacing are steady and simple, allowing the three monologues to build, overlap and eventually collide in a crescendo of atrocities. The merging of Derek Van Heel's lighting and Benjamin Furiga's sound design is deliberately understated and profoundly effective. Performances by Van Driest, Carter and Schneider, aided by Ruddy's masterfully written text, portray a rare depth and believability. The International is a powerful reminder that a matter of moments is all it takes to turn any one of us, regardless of background and geography, into the dreadful pawns of ever-present conflict.
