Arts & Entertainment
The Women of Lockerbie
The rugged hillside of Theatricum Botanicum’s outdoor stage is a fitting stand-in for the wild moors of rural Scotland where Deborah Brevoort’s powerful, poetic and inspirational The Women of Lockerbie is set.
Inspired by a true story and a stunning tribute to the triumph of love over hate—a mother from New Jersey roams the hills of Lockerbie Scotland, looking for her son's remains which were lost in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am 103. There, she meets the women of Lockerbie who are fighting the U.S. Government to obtain the clothing of the victims found in the plane's wreckage. Determined to convert an act of hatred into an act of love, the women want to wash the clothes of the dead and return them to the bereaved families. Theatricum will offer “Highlander Banquet” dinners in the theater's adjacent gardens at 6:30 pm, followed by an 8 pm performance. (Separate admission, or combination packages available.)
“These women show us a way out from the terrible after-effects of terror,” explained Brevoort. “It's about people who refuse to be broken, about how helping others is a way out of sorrow.”
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Brevoort was inspired by a documentary she saw on Nightline that included a short segment about the elderly women who had started the laundry project. “I was so moved, it took my breath away,” she said. “I had never seen anything like that. It took them a year to wash all the clothes and return them to the families. It was so heroic— like the Trojan women.”
The New Yorker called Brevoort's play “A moving, thoughtful exploration of how grief changes over time.” The London Times wrote, “How to reconcile profound grief with belief in God? How to exorcise a great evil? The answer of the Lockerbie women was ‘to get love out of this.’ Can't think of a better one myself.”
The Women of Lockerbie runs Sunday, June 30 through September 29. Tickets are $20-$33. The Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum is located at 1419 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga, CA, 90290. Audience members are advised to dress casually (warmly for evenings) and bring cushions for bench seating. Schedule varies. For reservations and information, call 310-455-3723 or go to www.theatricum.com
