Abstract:
Based on real events, A Thousand Hills, first performed in 2011, told the stories of Francois Byamana, a Rwandan refugee from the 1994 genocide, New Zealand Red Cross worker Bob Askew, and the friendship that developed between them from their meeting in aid camp across the country’s border. The play’s director, Margaret-Mary Hollins, first met Byamana while working as a tutor for MIXIT, an Auckland youth arts project with participants from refugee, migrant and local backgrounds. Four years later, after a number of development stages, and scripted by Hollins’ collaborator, Mike Hudson, the dramatized and semi-fictionalized account of Byamana and Askew’s experiences premiered. The final cast featured a mix of professional actors and local refugees, including Byamana himself. The play was directed in a bold physical style, incorporating text, movement, image and music played live by the performers. Rather than focusing on scenes from the genocide, the play examined what comes after, asking how one responds in the aftermath of a social crisis such as Rwanda’s. In examining the play and production, I focus on the question of response and responsibility and put this in the context of the writing of philosopher of ethics, Emmanuel Levinas.
