THE LANGUAGE OF BIRDS: ROSA LUXEMBURG AND ME
Blue Rider Theatre
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In 1992, on the 73rd anniversary of Luxemburg’s death, a young performance artist listens to a lecturer on WBEZ unenthusiastically list the achievements of this all-but-forgotten woman. And in The Language of Birds: Rosa Luxemburg and Me, written by Donna Blue Lachman and Tim Fiori, that young artist turns to those letters for comfort. Chafing under the rejection of her latest endeavor–even her best friend could say nothing good about it–and wondering if all her hard work has been for nothing, the artist wanders into a garden where she discovers one of Luxemburg’s letters buried in the soil. The humanity revealed in the letter sparks the artist’s empathy, and she enters into Luxemburg’s prison experience, where the eternality of nature–reflected in each flower and free-flying creature–bolsters her morale as it did Luxemburg’s. After she was released from prison, Luxemburg resumed her activism with a renewed sense of purpose–which led to her untimely death. And the artist, released from the prison of her own despair, returns healed to her own time to take up her mission, and in doing so plants the seeds–literally and figuratively–left her by her spiritual mentor.
MACHINAL
Eclipse Theatre Company
