I CAME TO LOOK FOR YOU ON TUESDAY

THEATER

I CAME TO LOOK FOR YOU ON TUESDAY
BY
CHIORI MIYAGAWA

DIRECTED
BY
ALICE REAGAN

REVIEWED
BY
BINA SHARIF

I came to look for you on Tuesday is a play which is hauntingly beautiful and poignant.
I came to look for you on Tuesday is a passionate poem play, an unending stunning poem of
memory, loss and reunion after natural disasters such as Japan Earthquake in 2011 and wars.
The main character in the play is a young girl named Maia who is six years old at the time of the tragedy of tsunami when she is saved by her mother at the loss of her mother's life who was only twenty years old. At the end of the play Maia is fifty years old and all her life she has tried to deal
with her loss and the reunion with her father who just can't come to terms with the tragedy of losing
his young wife and some times blames Maia for the loss.  In a heart breaking scene the father says to his daughter,"You are a thief, you stole my life."  One can never forget strong and bold writing like this.
I came to look for you on Tuesday throughout has poetry like that.
Poetry which destroys you at one point and enthralls  you at the next moment.
There are almost twenty characters in the play who are trying to deal with the loss of loved ones and trying to reunite to have some kind of closure in some ways and all scenes have great strength of
brilliant writing.
The play is also stunningly directed by Alice Reagan.  Direction is precise, clean, sharp and moving.
When one enters the theater , one encounters just a very clean room with grey walls and floor and
a projection screen.  Almost no props except some little blocks of wood and some doors, actually many
doors but not intrusive at all.  The set is just perfect for this kind of a play which is taking place all
over the world and characters inhabiting the space are also people, real people of blood and flesh
trying to deal with the loss which can never be dealt with actually, the loss which is beyond one's control but still some kind of reunion is wished for.
All the actors are brilliant.  Completely connected with their characters.  Right in-front of you they become the real people and you forget that you are watching a play.
Actors play many different roles and they are good in each one.
The playwright and the director conducted salons where they developed stories of reunion
by many artists and the result is so effective that the play stays inside of you for days.
I have been thinking about this beautiful play for a whole week.
I came to look for you on Tuesday, a lovely title, which is based on one of the characters who is looking
for his missing son and leaves a hand written message on the wall of one of the evacuation center
telling him, I CAME TO LOOK FOR YOU ON TUESDAY.
If that doesn't break your heart, just tell me what will.......
And theater should have that kind of lasting effect and this play does.
And there is another amazing thing happens here often, Laughter.
Play also has sharp and real heartfelt humor.
I just loved this play.

AT LAMAMA E.T.C TILL OCT 13