Review: “LINES” at La MaMa

What connects five prisons over five decades in Uganda, Palestine, and the UK?

The U.S. premiere of LINES at La MaMa looks through the bars of postcolonial life as told through stories in diverging yet parallel worlds. Taking place in 1970s through 2010s, we meet ordinary people in disparate, yet interconnected situations, dealing with imprisonment and impossible choices. Created by Fidaa Zidan, John Rwothomack, Junaid Sariddeen, Alexandra Aron with additional writing by Asiimwe Deborah Kawe.

In light of all that is happening lately around the war in Gaza and college protests that continue to bring attention to the massive number of civilian casualties, LINES at La MaMa brings a level of context to the current situation while also presenting us a humanizing face to the Palestinian issue. Narratives can grip the mind in all sorts of ways and it is human nature to abstract large numbers of human casualties as mere statistics yet a single person can alter that perception and show us what Depeche Mode so eloquently stated back in the 1980’s, that people are people.

LINES is a an apt title for this production considering it makes clever use of lines in multiple ways. Timelines give historical and personal context to this complicated story. Not only are lines used to connect people and places, but they are also cleverly used to draw perimeters of confinement, which is central to these characters’ stories of activism and incarceration.

Founded in 1961 by Ellen Stewart, La MaMa is a home for artists of all identities, races, ages, and cultures. At La MaMa, artists are provided the space, support, and creative freedom to explore new forms of expression and to make new work.

La MaMa builds audiences that are integral to the creative process. Our local and global community members who gather in our physical, digital, and hybrid spaces to see new work, are often the first audience for that work. The audience response helps to shape the evolution of the piece for the artist, and is an essential part of the creative ecosystem that La MaMa nurtures.

La MaMa believes art is a force for change. Violence, discrimination, and systemic racism will not stop without a unified resistance. La MaMa is committed to battling bigotry and intolerance in all its forms, and to providing inclusive spaces for our local, national, and global community.