On Stage: Performing Arts at our Oneonta Campuses by Rachel Frick Cardelle

Play Examines Impact of Interethnic, Sexual Violence

Written by Matéi Visniec, a Romanian-French playwright, in 1996, “The Body of a Woman as a Battlefield in the Bosnian War” directed by Barby Kahl, will be playing at Hartwick College’s Lab Theater. This intimate, very flexible theater is the perfect setting for the play, which runs just over an hour and a quarter. The play itself focuses on two women: an American psychotherapist and a Bosnian woman recovering from a brutal rape. Through the dialogues and monologues, the audience learns about, and is challenged to consider, both the impact of sexual violence and interethnic conflicts that too often lead to war.

Given the play’s title, it won’t surprise you the show deals with difficult topics: war, rape and ethnic cleansing. What might surprise you is that it comes across as a very engaging “Ted Talk,” albeit one aimed at a more mature audience. What certainly surprised me was that Kat Schmidt, one of the two student actors in the play, chose such a difficult and heavy script as her senior thesis project.