Two people meet in a room and talk for two hours. After that talk, war breaks out.
In July 1990, April Glaspie, the American ambassador in Iraq, sat down with Saddam Hussein, president of Iraq. A few days later Iraq invaded Kuwait. The reaction was not long in coming: in the Spring of 1991, a coalition led by the US invaded Iraq. The first Gulf War was a fact.
Exactly thirty years later, playwright Willem de Wolf brings together three figures in April: April Glaspie, who all these years has remained silent about the substance of her conversation with Saddam Hussein; Tariq Aziz, Iraq’s Minister of Foreign Affairs who died in prison in 2015; and a news anchor who wants to know what really was said between April Glaspie and Saddam Hussein.
April mixes historical visual material from recent decades with a surprisingly personal and intimate perspective. The show raises burningly topical questions about the troubled relationship between the Western and Arab worlds, the role of the media, and the power (or lack of power) of diplomacy and political institutions.
Credits
director
- Guy Cassiers
text
- Willem de Wolf
with
- Katelijne Damen
- Eelco Smits
- Sabri Saad El Hamus
dramaturgy
- Erwin Jans
light design
- Fabiana Piccioli
musical design
- Kris Defoort
production
- Toneelhuis
coproduction
- de Koe
with the support of
- de Tax Shelter van de Belgische federale overheid
- Casa Kafka Pictures Tax Shelter empowered by Belfius
