The stories seem so far removed from them but once they take on the challenge of telling the stories of these people they begin to understand universality. The Upstage Interview, each Monday, is a result of CharPo's media partnership with Upstage: Theatre on Radio on CKUT.
Upstage and CharPo contributor Sarah Deshaies spoke with Director Vernice Miller about Concordia presentation of Scorched, the English version of Incendies by Wajdi Mouad. Below is an abridged version of the interview transcribed by Estelle Rosen, CharPo Editor-in-Chief.
Miller was asked about the story of Scorched.
On the death of their mother, twin immigrants learn how much they don’t know about their past. Their mother left behind two letters; one to a father they didn’t know they had; another to a brother they didn’t know about. This takes them to the land of her birth which is a foreign country to them. There they uncover their own story.
As to what prompted Miller to get involved in this project, Miller replied.
The Artistic Director of Concordia Theatre Department proposed I take a look at this play when we were discussing my being on staff this semester as Guest Director. As soon as I read the play, I knew I had to do it.
The wonderful thing about Scorched is that it feels like an old Greek myth. I daresay the playwright borrowed from the Greek mythology of Oedipus. It reads like Oedipus but it’s our modern day mythology, our modern day epic. And the story that these twins go back to the Middle East with so much of our focus these days on the Middle East, it seemed very timely.
