VALDOSTA — Valdosta State University Theatre and Dance will present “The Women of Lockerbie” Oct. 22-28 on the Lab Theatre stage. Tickers are on sale now.
A poetic drama written by Deborah Brevoort, “The Women of Lockerbie” tells the story of a mother from New Jersey who “roams the hills of Lockerbie, Scotland, looking for her son’s remains, which were lost in the crash of Pan Am [Flight] 103,” according to a play synopsis. “She meets the women of Lockerbie, who are fighting the United States government to obtain the clothing of the victims found in the plane’s wreckage. Determined to convert an act of hatred into an act of love, the women want to wash the clothes of the dead and return them to the victims’ families.”
Although the characters and situations in “The Women of Lockerbie” are purely fictional, the play was inspired by the real-life attack on Pan Am Flight 103, which was destroyed by a terrorist bomb on Dec. 21, 1988, while operating the transatlantic leg of its route from Frankfurt, Germany, to Detroit, Mich. All 243 passengers and 16 crewmembers on board were killed, 189 of them American citizens. Large sections of the aircraft crashed onto residential areas of Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 11 more people on the ground. Referred to as the Lockerbie Bombing, this event was the largest attack on American civilians in United States history, until Sept. 11, 2001.
“I purchased a manuscript copy of the play from Dramatists Play Service before it was even published,” said H. Duke Guthrie, director and professor of theatre in VSU’s Theatre and Dance Area, Department of Communication Arts, College of the Arts. “The play has had a place in my small office library for some time, and I have found myself going back to it again and again. Perhaps it is because I have visited Scotland and was struck by its beauty, or perhaps it is because I remember exactly where I was standing in my parents’ home when learning of the crash from the Today Show on the morning of Dec. 22, 1988. But I think I am drawn to this play because of two questions — How do we respond to acts of hatred? How should we respond to acts of hatred?
“The cast, crew, and creative team of ‘The Women of Lockerbie’ hope this production gives you things to ponder as well.”
“The Women of Lockerbie” is a contemporary play presented in the style of an ancient Greek tragedy, a play that has been translated into 10 languages and performed more than 400 times in theatres all across the United States and in Scotland, England, Ireland, Japan, Greece, Spain, Poland, Belarus, and Australia. It is the recipient of a Fund for New American Plays award from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and a silver medal from the Onassis International Playwriting Competition.
Performances will be held at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 22, through Saturday, Oct. 24; 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 25; and 7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 26, through Wednesday, Oct. 28.
Individual tickets for “The Women of Lockerbie” are $15 for adults, $12 for senior citizens, $10 for children and non-VSU students, and free for all VSU students with a valid university identification card. Tickets for groups of 10 or more people at a single performance are $9 per person.
