ICP/Luz

There were two pictures that caught my eye during our visit to the ICP last week.Unfortunately, I was unable to find them when I looked for them online. The first picture is that of schoolchildren kneeling with their arms outstretched to the sky. At first glance I thought the children were praying, but after reading the caption on the picture, I learned that they were doing gymnastics. This realization bothered me because whoever took the picture had ill intentions, I felt. He or she took a picture of white children in Johannesburg in a prayerful position, trying to make it appear that they are religious and faithful, when in reality they were simply doing gymnastics. It made me wonder if I had been fooled in the past by the media putting a picture that is not exactly what it seems, and leaving people to make their own interpretation of what is put in front of them.
The next picture that interested me is titled “Whites Only Bus Stop”. It depicts three white women at a bus stop in Johannesburg in 1983 looking around them fearfully, as if they are expecting trouble from others around them, maybe blacks. They are clutching their bags, showing that they don’t trust the people around them. I found this picture very powerful.
Luz was a beautiful play. I truly felt for all the women in the play, and I thought the producer did an excellent job of making the audience feel mistreated, although it is unlikely anyone in the audience had gone through anything like these women had. The scene in which Luz screams at the attorney who won’t look at her is honestly the most powerful scene I’ve ever witnessed in any play, television show, or movie. In fact if I had to sum up the entire production in one word, it would be just that: powerful.