Theater: Going To St Ives

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A gripping play deals with the life of the mother of a hard dictator in a mysterious unnamed country in the deep sub-Saharan Africa really questions the very nature and proximity of her motherhood while on a strange medical visit to the U.K. This unusual visit really triggers a profound and deep moral dilemma; followed by a consequent chain of events with some great personal and political aftershocks. Now one question comes in the mind as what would you do if your beloved son was a monster; a hard dictator of an "empire" who brutally murdered hundreds of thousands of his innocent countrymen? May N'Kame have glaucoma and he has gone to St. Ives to some relief and to have laser surgery performed by well known Dr. Cora Gage, who is a preeminent practitioner in this rare field. On the appointed day of her painful surgery Dr. Gage makes a mysterious plea to Mme. N'Kame to really persuade her son to commute the horrible death sentences of four innocent and prominent physicians who astonishingly refuse to carry out the rigid son's orders. Mme. N'Kame is now willing to grant this well needed favor; now, followed the other confusion as if the doctor will really grant a genuinely uncommon one in return. The Los Angeles Times called the play, "original and compelling...engrossing...startling," and "timely." See for yourself what is sure to be one of the most haunting plays on stage in New York this season.

Lee Blessing, the fine playwright has given this gripping and thought provoking play; but according to some critics, Lee is somewhat underrated playwright. This time he has an important and very good new play, "Going to St. Ives, which cannot be really overrated. A superb two-hander, it begins with the May N'Kame, the frightened mother of a bloody African dictator, the play starts as she comes to St. Ives, near Cambridge, for a painful and delicate operation by a well known eye surgeon, Dr. Cora Gage. Now, the play takes a huge dramatic turn as soon it emerges that May is after something auspicious and hidden that is even more delicate that someone must not divulge. Lee Blessing has been rated as good at this sort of gripping duo drama, and he really proved himself with "A Walk in the Woods" dealing with the famous Cold War between United States and the Soviet Union. The foremost and chief concern is what I'll really call the Cold Peace, and whereby the West, including ophthalmologists, is blind to cause havoc with Third World genocide; but this incredible and though provoking play also deals with any number of personal problems. It's been very well directed by Maria Mileaf, and is superlatively acted by talented L. Scott Caldwel and Vivienne Benesch; both are amazingly serious and amusing, dramatic and diverting.

In Going to St. Ives, the well defined characters are two very strong-willed women, one is a British eye surgeon, Dr. Cora Cage and the other one is May N'Kame; she is better described as the imperious mother of an cruel African dictator reminiscent of famous Idi Amin who has thoroughly made himself an profound emperor and her an empress. Their common talks don't take place during a common walk in the woods, but over that best civilized symbols of polite and normal social intercourse like over a cup of tea. Very experienced playwright, Mr. Blessing uniquely manages to really establish his superb premise with an at once provocative and entertaining play. The play has a plenty of dramatic tension. There are some very sharp and frequently funny dialogue amazingly crackles with some timely quandaries. Overall the play is thorough research through the minds of a dictator and his mother and really worth to watch.