I think TERRORISTKA will explain itself, but I'd like to add a little bit about how the play came to be, and about the political context to which it belongs:
TERRORISTKA is my first full-length play. It is based on the case of a young Chechen woman who was trained to be a suicide bomber. I first discovered her story in early 2004, while working on a Fulbright project -- translation of poetry -- in St. Petersburg, Russia. I opened the St. Petersburg Times one afternoon and found her, Zarema Muzhihoyeva, glaring out at me from behind bars. I saw that she looked just like me, and that we were the same age, 24. I felt that I had to write her story.
At first, I approached the subject through poetry, but the poems became quite long and began to take separate voices, so I saw that this was subject matter for a play. Luckily, when I returned to the U.S. in the fall of 2004, I had the opportunity to grow this work: I was studying in the Boston University Creative Writing program, and had class with Derek Walcott. After a few weeks in the classroom, he took his poets to the theatre and asked us to adapt prose piece as a scene in verse. I chose Zarema Muzhihoyeva's pre-trial testimony. With Derek's encouragement, I continued to work at the Playwright's Theatre in the spring. Two friends, composition students at the Berklee School of Music -- Israelis with a dedication to the issues of the story -- created music for the play, and another friend, a painter, contributed some dark landscapes for an end-of-semester reading.
Yet, TERRORISTKA has grown quite a bit since that "final" point. I feel that it is now ready for the stage.
Specifically, this play addresses the Chechen-Russian conflict. While the situation has changed since I began writing the play two years ago, I can't say it has changed for the better. Most recently -- on Saturday, October 7, 2006 -- the premier Russian human rights journalist, Anna Politkovskaya, was murdered just before she submitted an article about abuse by Chechnya's pro-Kremlin government. Over the summer, the symbolic rebel leader, Shamil Basayev (model for the character of Rustan), was killed by a Russian explosion -- a tragic, if justified death. He had claimed responsibility for the 2004 school siege in Beslan. There are extreme offenses on both sides of this conflict, as an empire tries to dominate a proud, patriotic nation. The situation is parallel, I think, to United States' treatment of Iraq, and I hope that American audiences will recognize the similarities. I focus specifically on the lives of young women, and how, as naďve or unwitting participants, they become progenitors of the conflicts that have destroyed their own lives. Hopefully, as I suggest in the play, there is a meeting point, a common lullaby, that can unite instead of divide.
--R.B.
SYNOPSIS:
Act I.
Zarema Muzhihoyeva, a 24 year-old Chechen woman, energetic and
attractive, but recently widowed joins a militant group in the Caucus
mountains. When the play opens, the
Chechen anthem is heard as she makes her way into the mountains, guided by
Mohamed, a mountain man. When they
arrive at camp, Zarema meets Fatima, an older woman who attends to quotidian
duties on the site and is fiercely religious, and Rustan, the alpha male and
leader of the operation. What ‘the
operation’ is becomes clear as Rustan and Fatima discuss plans for past and
future suicide bombings. Meanwhile,
Zarema and Mohamed share cigarettes and conversation.
Fatima and
Rustan begin to train Zarema. Because
she has a smooth manner and attractive face, Rustan decides that her will take
her to Moscow to complete a terrorist act there. The dangers that these “Black Russians” will face on the train
and in Moscow become evident as Fatima serves coffee and Rustan rehearses
Zarema to “pass as Russian” in the train-car.
Act II. On the train, Rustan, Mohamed and Zarema are confined to close
quarters. Rustan produces a bottle of
vodka, and the men drink, despite Zarema’s scorn and concern as a Muslim. The two men become contentious, and Mohamed
exits to smoke in the aisle. In the
train-car, Rustan threatens Zarema, telling her the story of the scar on his
face. Mohamed comes to find her and they talk in the aisle. He comes on to her; she is too
exhausted. When they two return to the
train-car, Zarema upsets the bottle of vodka, waking Rustan. Zarema becomes hysterical, and the men force
her into bed.
The next
day, Rustan suggest that Mohamed enact the bombing in place of Zarema, but
Mohamed declines, and, as the train approaches Moscow, they prepare her for the
planned act. When she exits the train,
she is dressed to the nines and loaded with explosives.
Act III. Moscow is a cacophony of temptations and injustices. Rustan leads her into this over-stimulating
environment and pushes her towards the designated bombing spot. His disrespect is evident. Mohamed lights up a cigarette. Zarema sees the crowd move in slow motion;
women talk; a child screams. Suddenly,
she snaps out of her trance, pulls the wires off of her body, and runs away
from the bomb. The bomb explodes.
Note: The play is not over. It is interwoven throughout with the voices
and visages of two other women, Lena, the wife of the Russian bomb sapper
killed by the explosion, and Jailbird, Zarema’s future self. They speak from the future as voices of conscience
in the present. At the end of the play,
they reconcile and agree on the nature of Zarema’s crime.
Read the play (pdf).
The Music (mp3):