The stage is bare save for a simple desk with a glass of water on it and a wooden chair.
Don鈥檛 be fooled by how innocent, how low-tech, it looks.
In The 蜜柚直播 Labyrinth Project鈥檚 鈥淒ogs of Rwanda,鈥 we are easily transported into the middle of a genocide and a journey to forgiveness.
Actor Christopher Younggren in the role of David sometimes sits behind that desk, sometimes paces the stage as he tells the story of the genocide he witnessed when he was a 16-year-old missionary in Rwanda.
Now an adult haunted by what he saw, David has written a book as a way to expunge the horrors that have never left him.
But he left a detail out. A huge one for God鈥檚 Blessing, the young Tutsi who was with him as they fled death squads.
The play jumps back and forth in time, but Younggren, and Barclay Goldsmith鈥檚 deft direction, never let things get jumbled.
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David is a callous fellow, dismissing relationships with barely a nod. He is hard, lacking empathy and much insight. But he loved once: As a teen he had followed his crush, Mary, to Rwanda, a country with staggering beauty.聽
鈥淎nd then one morning, a dead body comes floating by,鈥 he says. 鈥淎t first, we think it鈥檚 an accident. We鈥檝e never seen a dead body before. But then they keep coming.鈥
How do you handle that, other than try to forget it, push it away?
David can鈥檛. He compares the memories to Sisyphus鈥 stone 鈥 relief from his burden seems unattainable.
But he keeps trying. So, 20 years after surviving, he writes that book. Then the note from God鈥檚 Blessing pulls him back to Rwanda, where he must relive the horrors to get to forgiveness for himself, and for God鈥檚 Blessing.
This one-act, one-man show written by Sean Christopher Lewis is riveting, and Younggren is so deeply rooted in the character and the story that the guilt, the trauma, David鈥檚 journey, are palpable. We鈥檝e seen the actor do some very impressive work 鈥 this is the most impressive of all.
Despite the set, there is nothing simple about 鈥淭he Dogs of Rwanda.鈥 It is a powerful story powerfully told.