last performance of FLOWERS OF RED

Sunday at four was the closing matinee of my friend Eliza Wyatt's play FLOWERS OF RED at the Boston Playwrights Theatre. I also saw the opening performance-- the closing was more assured and focused,and had an extra measure of melancholy because it was the last-- at least in this incarnation. The play is about a young American peace activist who is acting as a human shield between an Israeli bulldozer and a Palestinian's house marked for demolishment -- based, of course, on the life and death of Rachel Corrie. The other characters are Samia, who is living in the house and is about the same age as the American college student, and Jim, a somewhat older American who says he came to the area as a student film maker and for mysterious reasons decided to stay. The life of the play is in the fragile web of trust and understanding across cultural divides.

I had read the script both before and after it was produced at the Edinburgh Fringe last August, and liked it very much. I offered to do what ever I could to help with the production-- which turned out to be scrounging costumes and sending a few emails. I wish I could have been more helpful, but I just don't know how one gets people to come to a new play. FLOWERS OF RED was in a reputable venue, had a good script, fine acting, praise in a Boston Globe review, listings in the main local papers and on the web. There was an interview with Eliza in The Jewish Advocate. Yet FLOWERS played to half houses in its 99 seat space throughout its run. At least there were many more young people than usual in the audience at this play about young people on the front lines of the tragic confrontation that affects the lives of people all around the world-- even people who never give a thought to it.

There was a little reception after the show, with congratulations and farewells. Afterwards I had intended to go to Playwrights Platform http://www.playwrightsplatform.org in Waltham to see readings of 2 new scripts by writers I know and like -- one by Kelly DuMar, the other by Jon Myers, who played Jim in FLOWERS OF RED. But I'd been up late the night before, exhausted after Saturday's rehearsal, and then up early for choir rehearsal and church Sunday morning. I ran out of steam and went home -- to watch Bleak House on PBS.