MADC’s production of Elinor Cook’s play Image of an Unknown Young Woman, being directed by Philip Leone-Ganado, examines how an image can change an entire society.
Whether it’s a woman shot during protests in Iran, a man beaten by police during the G20 protests in London, a woman pepper-sprayed in Istanbul’s Taksim Square or a dead migrant child on a Mediterranean shore, a single image can stay with us.
The play is set after the police shooting of a woman in a yellow dress during protests. A video of the moment is uploaded on social media by Ali and Leyla. It goes viral and they panic as the authorities are now after them.
Across town, Yasmin is desperate to know if her missing mother is still alive. Halfway around the world, a woman in London wants to help. A tornado of dissent and violence spreads.
Director Leone-Ganado recalls protests in London outside the Iranian embassy, angry men and women carrying a woman’s picture on banners. It was a picture of another woman with the same name; her life was ruined by the protesters and the media who inadvertently made her the face of the revolution.
In Cook’s fast-moving play, the chorus takes on different parts and points in time – a cackle of internet voices, a group of protesters and a huddle of undercover policemen – revealing a gripping aspect of rage and dissent.
Anthony Edridge, Joseph Zammit and Steffi Thake are the chorus, along with the main characters played by Becky Camilleri, Maria Pia Meli, Chris Galea, Erica Ann Muscat and Nanette Brimmer.
Cook highlights how today images quickly become symbols for a conflict; how they work for or against a situation, manipulating, distorting and galvanising and how we react impulsively to the things we see and feel.
Cook suggests that with our increasingly standard reactions to social media (always to share, rarely to question), protests and uprisings can eclipse a wider context. This image of an unknown woman becomes an icon, a brand.
• Image of an Unknown Young Woman is being staged at Blue Box at M Space in Msida on May 6-8 and May 13-15 at 8pm.
Tickets may be obtained by phone on 2124 6644 or online at www.bluebox.com.mt.