Witness

Synopsis

A woman translates the stories of survivors of the war in Yugoslavia for a Swedish therapist. As he grows ever more indifferent she finds it increasingly difficult to maintain her professional distance. For her, simply saying the words is not enough. She finds herself risking her job, her sense of perspective and even her sanity in order to make a connection with those she encounters, or at least one of them in particular...An interpreter tells her story, but ultimately, she can only do it through the stories she has translated for others. Written in 1995 and based on real events this provocative monologue asks how truthfully any human can bear witness to another's experience.

Our Review:

23 July 2002

Written in Swedish in 1995, Cecilia Parkert's thought-provoking and painful play Witness details atrocities from the war in Yugoslavia through the eyes of a translator. So it's apt that Kevin Halliwell's English-language version won the Gate's Revelation prize for translation. Erica Whyman's production of it now is relentless and powerful.

The Interpreter is the sole character, and she is here to defend herself against allegations of becoming involved with a 'patient'. You see, she translates the victims' stories for a therapist, so the doctor/patient relationship has a third, dislocated dimension. As the translator is forced to repeat the patients' stories, she finds it more and more difficult to remain detached. It's as if they leave an echo of their pain resonating in her.

Increasingly frustrated with the psychologist's seeming indifference, the translator writes a letter to one of the men offering to help and the two have an affair. She feels she und...

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