Urbanite Theatre: No One is Forgotten

SARASOTA — On Friday, Urbanite Theatre in downtown Sarasota opened Winter Miller's hostage drama, No One is Forgotten.

Beng and Lali are foreign correspondents thrown into a squalid prison in an unspecified country for unexplained reasons. Drawing on real accounts from journalists who have been held hostage, Miller is intensely interested in how humans endure and even adapt to the experience of such terror.

The two women seem to be American, and the shifting politics in our country that have recently seen us become the sponsor of a brand of terror that would make the Bush administration blush hung over the entire performance in a way that did and should make audiences uncomfortable.

Much of the play, well, all of the play, deals with the ways in which the two women attempt to maintain their mental and physical health despite being forced to exist within the 24-confines of a small, shared cell on an anemic diet of rice and water slid through a slot in the door daily with only a bucket for a toilet.

They do physical and mental exercises at a near-constant pace, futilely attempting to stave off the deleterious effects of such captivity. They reminisce about the things they miss, providing the only scant backstory the audience receives.

The play is set in the round, drawing the audience into the cell where they'll often feel just as cramped and claustrophobic as the characters. Dekyi Rongé, fresh off strong performances at Urbanite in Westminster and Birds of North America, once again brings a haunting complexity to her character in the portrayal of Lali. The powerful chemistry between Rongé and Casey Wortmann, who previously performed at Urbanite in its Modern Works Festival, elevates the performance.

There is almost no exposition or resolution. Nearly everything is left to the audience's imagination. In some ways, this seems to be the point: to reduce the story to nothing more than the experience itself. In this sense, No One is Forgotten plays as more of an art installation than a compelling piece of storytelling, and although it clocks in at only 82 minutes, it often sagged and felt a bit longer than necessary.

While the acting is powerful and the production well-conceived, No One is Forgotten falls short of its potential to be a more engaging story. Directed by Summer Dawn Wallace, it runs through April 29. Visit the Urbanite website for schedule and ticket information.