Is it possible to be friends with a Country Y citizen? That’s the question posed by a citizen of Country X in the first five minutes of FIU Theatre’s latest production.
“Passage,” by Christopher Chen, is a provocative play that explores the ways that power imbalances between countries find their way into personal relationships and how privilege (or lack thereof) affects even our unconscious observations.
The play is inspired by E.M. Forster’s novel “A Passage to India,” which challenges British colonialism and their occupation of India. Forster based the novel on his own experiences living in India as a British citizen.
Chen, however, saw the story as much more universal. Instead of making his play about India and Great Britain, he names the countries in question Country X and Country Y. This makes the play reflect many different cultural and political experiences – especially when produced in a diverse region like South Florida.
“Miami has one of the largest immigrant populations in the country and because of that everyone working on the show has been the other,” says Michael Yawney, the play’s director. “They have been given strange looks because of how they look or act and that really added a new layer to this show.”
Sofia Salgado, a senior BFA acting student plays Q, a citizen of Country Y (the colonial power). When the play begins, she is starting a new life in Country X eager to meet the “natives” and experience a culture she’s only ever heard about.
“She is trying to navigate a new environment and honestly not doing it in the most graceful way possible,” Salgado said. “She stumbles and she messes up when trying to learn her way about this new culture.”
The play creates some challenges for the actors and director to navigate. To highlight the universality of the story, Chen keeps the characters as open as possible, even giving them single-letter names.
“There aren’t even genders assigned to any of the characters,” says Yawney. “Because of that I had to make choices about the character dynamics and the kind of story I would want to tell.”
The task of creating the world of the play doesn’t fall upon the director and actors alone. The show’s designers were tasked with imagining how the world looks and feels.
“The main thing I wanted the audience to feel when entering the space was uncomfortable,” says Neena Davila, a junior BFA Design student and the play’s scenic designer. “The audience is coming into a new and strange place where they are not going to know the meaning behind what is here.”
The stage in the Black Box theatre is set up with audience on both sides of a long runway. On the ends of the space are museum-like exhibits displaying many Country X items that are later used by the characters in the show. When the audience walks in, they feel like tourists in a new land where there is no traveling guide.
“Passage” opens on Friday, Sept. 23, and runs through Sunday, Oct. 2, at The Wertheim. Tickets are available on the FIU Theatre website.
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