BWW Reviews: OUR LADY OF KIBEHO Tells of a Holy Prelude to Tragedy

Perhaps the most daring thing a playwright can do when dramatizing a character's claim of a miracle is to put it right out there in front of the audience, without the use of staging or special lighting that makes them unsure of what they've seen.

That's what Katori Hall does to cap off the first act of her fact-based drama, Our Lady of Kibeho. In the middle of a realistic play she has us witness a genuine miracle and lets that sit during intermission. The stagecraft used is nothing most playgoers haven't seen before, but the gutsiness to do it is extraordinary.

The ensemble piece is set in Kibeho College, an all-girl Catholic school in southern Rwanda, a place so beautiful with its lush green mountains that the locals like to say it's where God takes his vacations. The year is 1981, and though the civil war and genocide that saw a half-million Tutsis killed by Hutus was still over a decade away, hints of that tension are evident in the casual conversation among students.

When a quiet Tutsi student, Alphonsine (Nneka Okafor), claims to have seen visions of the Virgin Mary, the people of faith have no intention of believing her. The strict Sister Evangelique (Starla Benford) assumes, like many, that she's just trying to get attention from the handsome and patient Father Tuyishime (Owiso Odera).

But when two disbelieving classmates begin going into similar trances and have premonitions of horrible violence and "rivers of blood," an emissary from the Vatican (T. Ryder Smith) arrives to investigate. The people of the small town ditch their skepticism when they realize the potential for tourism profits.

Despite the bloody horrors to come, Hall's play is quite genial and filled with warm humor and only mild debate on its theme of the boundaries of one's faith. Yet the knowledge of what's to come increases the sense of tragedy.

Director Michael Greif's production has a fine cast, but his decision to have some scenes played in the audience leaves those sitting up front having to turn around in their seats to get a view.

Rachel Hauck's simple set of white panels representing the school help set off Peter Nigrini's lovely projections of the Rwandan landscape.

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