New Plays from Finland

Famine (2016)

The interviewees enter the space.

The interviewer and interviewees introduce themselves, and then turn their attention to the photograph.

Darkness.

What do you see?

The interviewer poses the question repeatedly. Again and again, to people representing nine different perspectives. Those appearing on the stage in addition to the interviewer include a native of South Sudan, Small Child, Photographer, Meteorologist, Former Anorexic, Famine Researcher, Expert in Helping and Power, Ornithologist, and Old Woman. They all gaze on the (in)famous symbol of starvation, Kevin Carter’s 1993 photograph taken in South Sudan. The image is delimited and so is their gaze.

Famine is a play about hunger, need, the world, and the limits of the world and the gaze.

The work is Marie Kajava’s thesis project for the dramaturgy program at the Theatre Academy, University of Arts Helsinki.

Excerpt

Scene 2

THE CHILD

INTERVIEWER What do you see? YOUNG CHILD It’s a statue.
	METEOROLOGIST This isn’t an acute situation, this will’ve been going on for quite a while.
		INTERVIEWER The ribs.
(pause) INTERVIEWER Right. What do you see? YOUNG CHILD Like a statue or something.
	METEOROLOGIST What I’m getting at is that this isn’t a particularly acute situation, this will’ve been going on for quite a while. I mean if you look at the arms especially…
		INTERVIEWER The ribs visible underneath the black skin.
(pause) INTERVIEWER So, OK. What do you see? YOUNG CHILD It’s kind of a person, like a statue maybe.
	METEOROLGIST When you get a child looking like that, it’s not an acute situation, it will’ve been going on for quite a while. I mean if you look at the arms especially… the abdomen’s obviously distended as well.
		INTERVIEWER Um…. So the first thing that always catches my eye in this photo is the ribs of the child in the foreground, the way they’re visible under her black skin.
(silence) INTERVIEWER You know… at any time, you must just say, if it’s too much… or… um… promise you’ll say. I’ll rely on you to tell me if it’s too much… to look at. PERSON BORN IN SOUTH SUDAN There is no bigger one? INTERVIEWER Sure, I’ve got a bigger one if that works better for you but this smaller one’s sharper, but obviously if you want. PERSON BORN IN SOUTH SUDAN It’s a child, a living child, and INTERVIEWER Yeah. PERSON BORN IN SOUTH SUDAN Mmm. INTERVIEWER What do you see? PERSON BORN IN SOUTH SUDAN Mmm. INTERVIEWER Mmm. PERSON BORN IN SOUTH SUDAN I have personally seen this picure many times already, but nevertheless it’s quite, quite moving. Because the child that’s there is not dead, it’s alive. (pause) I can see the child is fighting. A healthy child can run away maybe but that child has now power, is powerless. And that’s no baby, she might be one year, she might be two years old, but what the hunger has had its way… you see it. The hunger has done that. (pause) What happened to the child? INTERVIEWER There’s been loads of speculation about that. / PERSON BORN IN SOUTH SUDAN What’s that? INTERVIEWER Bit of dry grass, maybe. But what’s this, this thing here? PERSON BORN IN SOUTH SUDAN It’s a wristband. (pause) Could be there is a food distribution and then these people come along and set fire to everything and everyone runs off but the child is left.

Translated by Liisa Muinonen Martin

Authors

Marie Kajava

Translations

Nälänhätä (Finnish, original)
Famine (English)
Hladomor (Czech)

Show all info in Drama Translations Database

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