Necessary Targets

Necessary Targets written by Eve Ensler [The Vagina Monologues] is an extremely moving and confronting play about the plight of Bosnian refugee women. An American psychiatrist – Dr JS – wonderfully portrayed by Susan Lynch, assisted by a trauma therapist – Melissa, Sarah Plummer – set out as part of the President’s Commission to aid women refugees in Bosnia. Melissa is conducting research in war-torn countries for a book that she is compiling. The interaction between JS and Melissa is an interesting story in itself and the relationship between these characters develops from an uneasy beginning to outright hostility towards the end. This is caused by JS’s growing compassion and understanding of the plight of the women and Melissa’s constant need to record and provoke conversations and confrontations. Both actors gave very believable performances and continued to develop their characters throughout the play. All the actors contribute very strong performances and there are three particular characters who have critical roles in the play. Azra – the older village woman who mourns the loss of simple pleasures such as that of her best friend, her cow called Blossom – is superbly portrayed by Rosemary Longhurst. Seada – played by Jennie Tkacz has one highly emotional scene graphically describing her rape by the soldiers. This brought tears to the eyes and was further enhanced by JS singing a moving song to Seada whilst attempting to comfort her. This scene also eluded to the plight and rape of Bosnia itself and how the entire country was torn apart. Zlata, a doctor before the war – played by Linda Gefken – develops a close association with JS, even though there she initially exhibits a great of distrust and scepticism of both JS’s and Melissa’s motives. The play is set on a stark background with a grey stage and cyclone fencing. This is a most effective backdrop and a constant reinforcement of the harsh conditions that these women endured. The relationships that develop between JS and the women refugees are of particular importance, and contrast nicely with the lack of warmth offered to Melissa during her visit to Bosnia. This is a confronting and thought provoking play that is handled extremely well by the cast, and with some very fine individual performances. The director – Siobhan O’Gara is to be commended for taking on this challenging play and ensuring an accurate portrayal of the real plight of Bosnian women. The actors were extremely convincing in their individual roles and the audience empathised with their struggles. At the end of the performance, the audience remained seated for some considerable time before moving out – an indication that those attending had been moved by such a realistic interpretation. The intense conversations in the bar afterwards also showed that the actors had successfully captured what the writer had intended – to show how ordinary people had been affected by internal conflict. An excellent show – well acted, managed and directed.