The major project I’m working on right now is called “Foreign and Domestic.” The play juxtaposes a story of domestic violence with a story of US secret intervention and violence in Somalia. “F & D” invites the audience to notice the similarities, and there are many: the most prominent being the presence of secrecy attached to violent dysfunction, and the legacy nature of violence in both the family and international affairs.
How did I write the first draft of the play? In five weeks, beginning last September. It came out in a rush and tumble of words. Yet the germ of the idea for the play dates back to a conversation I had with my friend Andy in 2002, 12 years ago.
The US was getting ready to invade Iraq. I was furious about this, as I believed the case had not been made adequately that Iraq possessed WMD’s. Never mind that Colin Powell appeared at the UN with photos and diagrams; it looked to me like he was lying through his teeth. (BTW, I was right)
I told Andy, “This is so dysfunctional! We are creating a crisis; Al-Anon says we should never create a crisis.”
Andy replied, ” I don’t think we can use Al-Anon principles to run our international affairs.”
For 12 years, I have wondered if that is really true. Would we really be worse off if we used Al-Anon principles to run our affairs of state? To this day, I don’t have the answer, but the play ask
s that question.