See facets of Iraq war through women's eyes
By Marty Clear
Published March 11, 2007
TAMPA - For most of us, the only vivid image of a woman in the Iraq war is that photograph of Lynndie England grinning and flashing a thumbs-up as she poses next to a tortured prisoner.
Heather Raffo's 9 Parts of Desire offers subtler, more unsettling portraits of women touched by the war, from an Iraqi teen who has grown up with bullets and bombs to an Iraqi-American woman who bemoans the war while she gets a pedicure.
Raffo performed her play to much acclaim in New York. It's currently at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center in a production that features a devastating performance by Julie Rowe.
Among the most stunning elements of Rowe's performance is her ability to almost physically transform herself from one character to the next. Some minor adjustments in costume help the illusion, but there's much more to it.
Rowe seems to wizen when she becomes an old Iraqi woman desperate to sell phony relics for a couple of bucks in a marketplace; her eyes brighten when she switches to the teenage girl who likes Justin Timberlake. Even her skin tones seem to change as she moves from one character to the next. The characters seem to literally inhabit her. It's impressive to watch. But it wouldn't mean much if Raffo's script weren't rich, powerful and thought-provoking. By focusing on individuals and stories rather than battles and statistics, Raffo allows us to feel Iraq and war, rather than just learn facts. Her play could safely be considered antiwar, but it's not a polemic.
At least one character strongly supports the war, and it has much more Saddam-bashing than Bush-bashing. Horrors of the Saddam Hussein regime are detailed, often graphically, in ways we have seldom heard.
Scott Cooper's semiabstract set is also impressive. It's an impressionistic face of bombed-out desolation, with a centerpiece of running water that tells us hope still somehow nourishes these characters.
In an unusual arrangement, 9 Parts of Desire is co-produced by the arts center and American Stage, which will host the production after its Tampa run.
Review
9 Parts of Desire
The show runs through March 18 at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center's Shimberg Playhouse, 1010 MacInnes Place, Tampa. 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 4 p.m. Sunday, $18.50. (813) 229-7827; www.tbpac.org. It then runs from April 28 to May 6 at American Stage, 211 Third St. S, St. Petersburg. 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 3 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday, $26. (727) 823-7529; www.americanstage.org.