Sense of an Ending: Theater review by Jenna Scherer
Fictional journalists, man. So predictable. They come in all swagger, get their worldviews rocked and come out the other end with their objectivity shattered. So it’s a shame that one of these creatures is at the center of Sense of an Ending, Ken Urban’s play about sifting through the rubble of the Rwandan genocide. It’s 1999, and New York Times ink slinger Charles (Joshua David Robinson) is doing a story on a pair of Hutu nuns (Heather Alicia Simms and Dana Marie Ingraham) who may have abetted a mass murder during the height of the violence. He’s accompanied by a Tutsi soldier (Hubert Point-Du Jour) with an agenda of his own, and the truth proves slippery.
Director Adam Fitzgerald’s production starts out slow, stumbling over long expository chunks in Urban’s script, but picks up steam into a moving conclusion. Ending slides between clichéd dialogue and fascinating, chilling explorations of guilt and moral relativity. I just wish we got more times with the actual Rwandans and less with the American journo.—Jenna Scherer
59E59 (Off Broadway). By Ken Urban. Directed by Adam Fitzgerald. With Joshua David Robinson, Hubert Point-Du Jour, Heather Alicia Simms. Running time: 1hr 30mins. No intermission.