Until the Flood review – fleshed out fictions from a real life killing
about 6 years in The guardian
Traverse theatre, EdinburghDael Orlandersmith transforms into her characters, dispassionately inhabiting their reactions to the shooting of black teen Michael Brown by a white policeman
Dael Orlandersmith’s play both is and isn’t about the 2014 shooting of black teenager Michael Brown by white police officer Darren Wilson. This event is the catalyst for Until the Flood, which digs into the aftermath of the shooting and unearths ugly truths about race in the United States.
Over the last few decades, American theatre has developed a tradition of processing trauma through documentary. Until the Flood follows in the footsteps of The Laramie Project and Anna Deveare Smith’s verbatim shows, bearing more than a passing resemblance to the latter. The play is based on interviews with people in St Louis, but – unlike Smith – Orlandersmith has turned these real people into fictionalised composites. Continue reading...
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