The woman behind a monumental new play

STEPHEN TUMUSIIME meets Colleen Wegner, international playwright and creator of ‘The Monument’ soon to open in Rwanda. SEATED comfortably with a cup of Bourbon coffee Colleen Wegner, the award wining Canadian playwright and screenwriter, looks happy and appreciative of the new land she is in. “Rwanda is a very beautiful country and full of hope.” Wegner had been in the country for one week when I met her to talk about her play, ‘The Monument’, which opens on July 5 in Butare. ‘The Monument’ which was first performed in 1996 was commissioned by a theatre in Toronto. “Back in 1993 there were a lot of bloody civil wars. In south East Asia, there were 43 bloody civil wars, where people were killing each other as if there was a law to cleanse humanity on this world” says Wegner who is the co-founder and co-artistic director of the NotaBle Acts in New Brunswick in the Eastern part of Canada. Wegner did not intend to write about the disorder – “It was too terrifying and horrific,” she explains. But a character appeared in her mind and even though she did not like what the character was she felt compelled to pursue the project. “You can’t run away from fate. I tried not to think about the civil wars but I couldn’t help it,” recalls Wegner. She was outraged by the bloody wars, in particular the genocide in former Yugoslavia. “I tried to put up something on the paper but threw it away. I tried to think again but the same character came to my mind for the second time. I threw the papers once more,” tells Wegner. It wasn’t until a second character entered her mind that she knew she had a play. The second character is an old woman who thinks that a soldier, the first character, knows where her murdered daughter is, explains Wegner who has an adopted daughter. In her quest to find out the whereabouts of her daughters body the old woman is forced to hide the soldier in her house. The two start out as sworn enemies but over time they come together, choosing reconciliation over revenge. Wegner explains that the play is about the difficulties of being a solider today and the ambiguity of morality and justice. “It’s basically a play about hope after the war,” says the playwright. Wegner never wanted to write about revenge. When it was first released in 1996 the play won the Governor’s General Award, one of Canadas most prestigious prizes. The play later won the Best Production award in China and Best Production in Toronto, before it won the Dora award in 2006. The play has since been performed in seven different countries. ISOKO, a new cultural centre in Kigali, is putting the play on in Rwanda and have invited Wegner for the opening. For more information on forthcoming production of ‘The Monument’ see. Contact: www.isoko-rwanda.org