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The Overwhelming Reviews
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It Is Not Pretty Review by: On-The-Aisle, Dec 23, 2007 |
Very powerful, very moving, and very disturbing. Like reliving a train wreck in slow motion since we all know what happened in Rwanda in 1994.
The naive and well-meaning Americans view Rwanda's issues through their own cultural biases and ignorance and miss seeing what is actually happening. There is also the issue of who's version of reality is the truth, the Tutsi or the Hutu or both or neither?
The only reality is that ... read more almost a million people died horrible deaths at the hands of their neighbors. All the differences, the question of who holds power, who lives or who dies in this troubled region are the legacy of their colonial past.
Well acted and well written and well worth seeing. |
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My recommendation:
Make an effort to see
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Talk, talk, talk. Review by: RALPHIE, Dec 2, 2007 |
Although OVERWHELMING wants to convey something Big and Important about the genocide in Rwanda, the best thing it conveys is the pretentiousness of the creators of the play.
What's needed is an expression of clashing ideas between persons with the power to change things or, at least, make some impact on events. Instead we have a collection of weak-willed talkers who blab, blab, blab but lack both the power and character to do much else. ... read more Also, there can be very little emotion or shock value about the murder of thousands of innocents when the only murder in the play is motivated for reasons other than the subject tribal warfare.
This play is grim, weak-willed and no more informative than an op-ed piece in the newspaper. If the Rwanda situation interests you, you might like it. Otherwise its just a Dr. Feelgood exercise: We worried for 2 1/2 hours about Rwanda; aren't we the greatest! |
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My recommendation:
Don't go
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Exceedingly Compelling play Review by: Beth M, Nov 5, 2007 |
LAMBS LED TO SLAUGHTER: WE’RE NOT IN ILLINOIS ANYMORE
I found J. T. Rogers's "The Overwhelming” to be a highly compelling, extremely well written, excellently acted, fast moving political drama, which is filled with highly dramatic content, which escalates until the play’s terrifying climax, in which the audience is witness to a nightmarish experience of political entrapment and raw fear. This play left me emotionally shattered, with a ... read more racing heart.
For me, there is something slightly “Ozian” about “The Overwhelming.” While I haven’t watched “The Wizard of Oz” in a number of years, my mind is drawn to a memory of three main characters (plus Toto!) who find themselves on a journey in a land full of promise and hope for some sense of individual salvation, but who then make discoveries that tell them that things may not be quite what they seem.
While this may seem like a very inconsequential comparison, as the events of the landscape of “The Overwhelming,” Rwanda during the weeks before the unconscionable and hideous genocide, in which 800, 000 Rwandans of the Tutsi people, were brutally massacred by the rival peoples, the Hutus, the idea of being in a new land where things can look deceptively positive and optimistic, but then as more and more is revealed and experienced, the degree of deception, including the political, becomes increasingly clear.
The playwright’s choice of portraying events before rather than during the actual period of the genocide is an extraordinarily effective approach, as Rogers is able to avoid confronting the audience with the unimaginable right before their eyes (for the most part), and also allows for the audience to experience the brewing and increasing revelation of the deep tensions of a country filled with inhumanity and hatred.
The main plot line involves the arrival of a professor from a university in Illinois (Jack Exley), who is making his last and rather desperate attempt at achieving tenure (or he will lose his job), by writing a book on unsung heroes, ordinary citizens doing extraordinary things at a grass roots level. He has been very recently invited to Rwanda by his college roommate (Joseph Gasana), a Rwandan (Tutsi) doctor who is running a clinic for children with AIDS, whose work is to be the core of his book.
Expecting to be picked up at the airport by Gasana, Jack is bewildered to find that instead, Charles Woolsey, an official of the U.S. Embassy, is there instead of Gasana. Though bizarrely cheerful, Woolsey expresses his extreme surprise that Jack has come to such a dangerous country, and also has invited his family into this situation as well.
This is the very beginning of what will increasingly evolve for Jack and the rest of his family, (his new wife Linda, an Afro-American journalist, and his unhappy and rather apathetic son Geoffrey, who is mourning the loss of his birthmother who died in a car accident) a sense of unnerving discomfort, disorientation, bewilderment, confusion, questioning, and, ultimately, raw fear.
Jack, through some investigation on his own, learns that Gasana is missing, and possibly dead. Horrified, Jack’s mission, in part because Gasana is his friend, but also partly self-serving as he must “publish or perish,” to coin a phrase often used to describe the plight of academics bucking for tenure. In this process, Jack finds himself hitting road blocks everywhere. No one that he talks with, including Embassy Officials and other Americans holding what they refer to as “their presence” in Rwanda, and the Rwanda police, seems to know anything, nor seem to care very much, which is extremely shocking and bewildering to Jack. And without realizing it, Jack is making enemies in this process and perhaps, even worse, is getting himself enmeshed in a political “quagmire” that he has absolutely no way of anticipating or understanding
Jack had been viewing Rwanda from the dis |
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My recommendation:
Go see if you get a chance
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Seniors, Adults
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| 4 |
Overwhelming... Did Carol See the Same Show I Did? Review by: John, Oct 24, 2007 |
| Did Carol see the same show I did? I was moved and found the show intense and emotionally riveting. Maybe she shouldn't review based on previews. |
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| 5 |
Wonderful Review by: Will, Oct 22, 2007 |
Not quite sure what the other reviewer was on about. It certainly wont and shouldnt be a 'flop'. The production is engrossing and takes you on a very powerful ride. I usually find i zone in and out of most theater shows but I was completely sucked in from the word go.
There are some very powerful performances. One thing that really connected with me was the richness of some of the actor's voices - really wonderful to hear.
It ... read more is a political show, and, rightly, leaves you with a heavy stomach. So much theater nowadays is about escapism. If you want that then go elsewhere. Theater is about transformation and that is where this production really hits the mark. Very powerful stuff.
I'm advising all my friends to go as not only is it a good show, the meaning behind the story is important for all to hear. Be affected, be moved and leave the theater with not just a little inspiration but a drive to change.
After reading this, it sounds like i work for the show! I just was affected by the show and hope that a few more people might be. |
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My recommendation:
Make an effort to see
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I saw this show with:
Spouse/Partner
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| 6 |
The Underwhelming Review by: Carol, Oct 15, 2007 |
| Hotel Rwanda did it MUCH better! The story, though depicting a vitally important event in Rwanda with the slaughter of its people through hate radio and arms sales arranged from China by the French, is an unlikely tale. A politically dense political science professor arrives in the country to do research about the people without the foggiest clue about the country's history, its people, or its language. Added to the mess ... read more is his white son and black wife. The complications are contrived and do not add to the plot line. The show is a flop. |
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My recommendation:
Don't go
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I saw this show with:
Spouse/Partner
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Recommended for:
Adults
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| * Review is an opinion of a BroadwayBox user and not that of BroadwayBox.com and BroadwayBox, Inc. |
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