The crowded room goes dark, on the back of the stage a video starts playing. It is Donald Trump calling for a complete shutdown of Muslims entering the US in the early stages of his presidential campaign. Applause in his audience (he can’t even finish his sentence properly) – hurtful memory in the audience of “To Be Honest”, a play portraying San Antonians’ view on Islam during the electoral campaign 2016.
One woman on the stage, directed towards the audience: “I don’t have a good feeling.”
The characters represent a diversity of points of view and all have a unique voice. A Sikh who is being recognized as Muslim, the ‘moderate’ Muslim girl fearing the next terrorist attack by a Muslim, the Jewish grandmother, the gay Texan, the disillusioned soldier, the liberal pastor.
Their monologues bear witness to a lack of knowledge within themselves and barriers in society. Why are the Christians invited to dinner in a mosque afraid of being killed? Why does a gay man feel the need to tell the Muslim girl he doesn’t hate her after the attack in Orlando? Why can’t people go outside without fear?
This engaging play gains its strength from the honest perspectives that reflect different sides of society but also within each person individually. It shows the struggle people have with building opinions in such a polarized world. Especially the discussion afterwards served as an insight into the American experience with racism and Islam again uniting many different perspectives.
In total this evening was very enlightening for me, my thoughts were challenged by the play and talking to Americans was (as always) entertaining.
Alamo Summer Blog 