On this coming Friday evening April 11 at 7:00 pm the curtain will rise in Auburn on the first of three performances of a readers theater production of the internationally acclaimed play, “What I Heard About Iraq” (A Cry For 5 Voices.) The other two performances will be on Saturday April 12 at 2 pm and Sunday April 13 at 3:00 pm. All three performances will take place at 190 Finley Street at the intersection of Orange St. in Auburn. This is across the street from the Placer High School parking lot in the Sierra Foothills Unitarian Universalist building.

Three local armed forces veteran men and 2 women will present this play by Simon Levy of the Fountain Theatre in LA www.fountaintheatre.com , which is based on the prose poem by Eliot Weinberger. The actors are all residents of Placer County and 4 of them are members of the productions sponsoring organizations, Gold Country Veterans for Peace chapter 122 and the Sierra Foothills Chapter of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.

In the forward to his adaptation, Mr. Levy says:

…This is a cry, a clarion call… This is also about truth, about facts, about quotes. This is not about opinions or fiction. This is about what was said and is being said… This is beyond rhetoric and about human beings. This is about us, now… This is about theatre as Community. The power of theatre is its ability to affect people. Although this is fact-based theatre, documentary theatre, investigative theatre… it must also be theatre that emotionally engages and galvanizes each audience member to take action in her/his way. It’s also meant to stir debate…

To that end, Veterans for Peace and Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom offer a post-production “Talk Back” session, at which the challenges and questions raised by the production can be discussed with audience members.

Appropriate for ages 18 and up.

Under 18 must be accompanied by adult.

R Rated due to images and language."

Winner of Numerous Awards, including:

FRINGE FIRST AWARD

EDINBURGH THEATRE FESTIVAL, AUGUST 2006

ADVERTISER FRINGE AWARD

ADELAIDE FRINGE FESTIVAL, MARCH 2007

What people are saying about What I Heard About Iraq

”What I Heard About Iraq is that rare thing, an impassioned and dynamic piece of verbatim theatre, using the words of Bush, Blair, Rumsfeld, Rice, serving soldiers and civilians caught in the war zone.”

“It's highly partial, but when the world's most powerful politicians obfuscate, directly contradict themselves and downright lie over numbers of casualties and weapons of mass destruction, it's hard not to be.”