Iqbal

"When your dreams leave you, can they every come back?"

I had the great fortune and opportunity to see the opening performance of Iqbal, adapted by Jerome Hairston from the book by Francesco D'Adamo, at the Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis. With the recent Hollywood success of Slumdog Millionaire, I found this production to be very fitting for the times in presenting yet another story of childhood and growing up on the otherside of the planet.

Iqbal opens with the narration of dream by the show's female protaganist, Fatima played honestly by Isabella Dawis. Standing alone in a spotlight, the audience watches in awe as her story comes to life across the backstage as beautifully colored and animated designs float effortlessly towards the sky. Fatima is soon thrust back into real life as the lights are brought up on a dusty stage populated by half started looms of equisette tapestry and her child friends dressed in tattered and dirty clothes. Beyond the back wall, one can see a tree growing just outside the only window -- barred to keep the children from escaping. The reality of child labor, beginning at even the earliest of ages, is probably something many of the kids and adults alike in the audience have not seen this close. It is a dim and dark living environment, but still the children find ways to have fun and pass the time as they yearn for the freedom to return to their families.

One of their many pasttimes is to listen to the distant broadcasts of cricket echoing through the hallways of their factory. Director Peter Brosious has put together a highly energetic and dynamic cast of children who's strength lies in their performance as an ensemble. Darting back and forth around the stage, it is hard not to feel their excited energy. Overseeing their work is elder teenager Karim (Jemar Rovie-Frenchwood), who has the difficult task of being a slave driver while still being bound to his innate feelings of youth and sense of companionship he feels for the rest of the children.

Eventually, a new boy is introduced to the factory, Iqbal (Jack Wyatt Jue). Walking in silent and stoic, the children watch as he is shackled to his loom. As the story unfolds, we learn that Iqbal is locked up because he has attempted numerous escapes from his previous employers, something the other kids have never even dared to think of doing. Instead, they have been promised freedom after the hundreds of check marks next to their looms are erased. Any outsider could see that this is just a ploy to get more work out of the children but it is hard not to acknowledge the children's honest attachment to hope. The children's world is so soon shaken as Iqbal encourages them all to assist him in breaking out fo the factory.

What I really enjoyed about his production was innocence captured in the play and the storytelling of the children. Despite having a rough exterior of an unpleasant life, the children are still just children and look everywhere for some direction in their life. Fear, as in many cases around the world, is the main tool used to motivate the children into working with complete compliance. As Hussain Khan, Emil Herrera creates an excellent performance as the instigator of doubt and hopelessness. Throughout the play, there are many examples of children bonding together to overcome these obstacles. What I wanted to see more of is the integration of dreams and their importance to the children. There is always an underlying thread weaving the dreams into the story but only a couple of times are these really explored.

Playwrite Hairston has given the Children's Theatre Company a work that will hopefully inspire and educate the audience about the current situation of many human beings outside of suburbia.