POW! (Play Of The Week)

Truth and Reconciliation
by Etan Frankel

Ben Montgomery, 28, is a passionate young doctor in a volatile Central American country, using his medical training to help the sick and the poor. Beatriz is the beautiful young woman with whom he falls in love.

Etan Frankel's suspenseful, deeply disturbing play unfolds largely in flashback as we follow Ben and Beatriz from their initial meeting in Ben's makeshift office (it's located in the back of a church) to the moment Ben--who, unbeknownst to him, has made a number of shadowy enemies--mysteriously disappears.

As Frankel takes us back in time, we see how Ben--youthful, naive, and altogether unsuspecting--falls into the trap that ultimately claims his life...even as, in a gripping parallel storyline, his grieving parents testify angrily before a "Truth and Reconciliation Commission" that has been convened to "investigate" the crime.

Cast: 4 M, 2 W

Scenes/Monologues: The anguished testimony of Ben's mother and father make for a pair of extraordinarily powerful speeches, and the scenes between Ben and Beatriz--rife with the promise of things to come, particularly toward the end of the play--are well worth looking at, too.

Recommended by: Stu