Brokers Without Borders is an original production by Akron’s Gum-Dip Theatre. The presentation is part of a multi-year project to create original performances about immigrants.
The one-hour theatrical piece intersects the autobiographical stories of three adolescent asylum seekers who have emigrated to the United States after fleeing war-torn homelands and relocation in foreign, often hostile, refugee camps.
Hsa Win’s family’s plight open the dramatization. Win’s family is of Karen origin. The Karen are an indigenous people of eastern Burma (Myanmar) and western Thailand.
Win’s family fled Myanmar for Thailand where they were placed in a refugee camp. His story involves the difficulties he endured while living in the refugee camp and the struggle he had to undergo while trying to advocate medically, legally and financially for his mother, while still a minor himself. Win’s Mother (realistically portrayed by Neema Bal) was hit by a car and injured while inadvertently jaywalking after resettlement in the United States. Samantha Byake portrays the lamentable obstacles and bureaucracy as the judge, police, and hospital staff.
Byake’s academic ability allowed her to attend a private school after relocation from war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo to Uganda, but the school fees were extra. Byake tried to help her mother with the expenses by making jewelry which her school peers admired, but too often “forgot” to pay for. Undaunted, she attempted to sell the goods on the dangerous streets where she barely escapes leering men and further turmoil. When she relocated to the U.S., she was given a job but also had to handle all of her family’s affairs. (Hsa Win humorously and silently portrays Byake’s young brother.) She was such an overachiever that she was soon sought out to solve all of her community’s problems. Her overburdened schedule and psyche were demonstrated with bricks piling up in her burgeoning backpack until she is finally on the verge of collapse.
Neema Bal, whose family was originally from Bhutan, was born in a refugee camp in Nepal. Bal portrayed both the suffering he endured at the hands of a sadistic principal in Nepal and the resilience that helped him focus as a young professional navigating the United States.
All three narratives are woven together brilliantly by director Katie Beck who uses traditional dance, music, and humor laced with great compassion to create an original artwork that left its audience wanting more. After each performance the ensemble engages in a dialogue with audience members about the play; repeatedly, the audience asked for more stories from these young actors to enlarge this piece into a bigger and more elaborate work.
All three actors are intriguing and talented but Neema Bal stands out as one who could conceivably go on to seek an audience in broadcast or film with his winsome tight-roped enterprise of balancing the pursuit of life with wit and gripping dramatization.
Gum-dipping is a process used in tire-making in which coils are dipped in rubber gum to strengthen the adhesive; “It’s supposed to be a metaphor for strengthening community, like that adhesive,” stated Beck.
[Written by Lisa Debenedictis]