‘Someone Will Remember Us’ A Tribute to War on Terror

This is the best Trinity Rep. show in a very long time and is an absolute must-see. 

Dr. Michelle Cruz and writers Deborah Salem Smith and Charlie Thurston collaborated on the project, speaking with military veterans, Iraqi refugees, and others as a follow-up to the 2006 Trinity production, “Boots on the Ground.”

The production, directed by Christopher Windom, allows us to hear the voices of the people many of us seem to have forgotten.

First-rate Performances in ‘Someone Will Remember Us’

The performances are first-rate, especially Ashley Aldarondo as Angelica, a United States Marine who was severely burned when a suicide bomber attacked the convoy she was in.

Angelica mourns the loss of her friend and fellow soldier Holly Charette, a 21 year-old from Cranston. In a tremendously poignant scene, Angelica meets Holly’s grief-stricken parents (Rachael Warren and Stephen Thorne) and shares the difficulty she has had processing Holly’s sudden violent death.

Warren and Thorne, both longtime Trinity Rep. company members, beautifully convey the details of Holly’s life. The way these actors show the emotional pain Holly’s parents went through really strikes the heart.

Dereks Thomas plays a soldier named Tyrone, who recalls the IEDs (improvised explosive devices) in very simple terms: “They were huge. They were killing us.”

Tyrone shares his sense of disorientation as a result of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) when he returned home. 

We also hear from Iraqi natives Kamal (Jade Ziane) and  Sara (Jihan Haddad).

They describe their lives before the U.S. invasion of their country, and then how things dramatically changed for the worse.

The sounds of gunfire and bombings became commonplace. Kamal is shocked when the beloved olive trees he enjoyed as a younger man are wiped out of existence, replaced by the smell of oil and smoke.

As a result of the war, 9.2 million Iraqis were displaced, and over 164,000 of them relocated to the United States.

The play doesn’t take a political view on the war, but there are comments about mistakes the United States made.

The Bush administration falsely claimed Iraq President Saddam Hussein was at least partly responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks and possessed “weapons of mass destruction.” 

After no such weapons were ever found, the rationale given by the Bush administration for the war was to bring democracy to the region.

“We were trying to force a round peg into a square hole,” says Dan (Thorne), a Professor at the Naval War College in Newport, who notes “big blunders were made early.”

Another character, a Navy Chaplain, describes the horror of seeing bodies in a morgue, and recounts seeing the boxes full of personal effects waiting to be shipped back to the families of the fallen.

This may seem like an unrelentingly bleak experience, but there are moments of humor and hope. 

“Someone Will Remember Us” is an important show, one which reminds us of our shared humanity. Families in two different countries were torn apart by a conflict no one is able to comprehend. 

People like Holly Charette should never be forgotten. The Iraqis who senselessly lost their lives should never be forgotten. The atrocities of war and the mistakes of our government should never be forgotten. Let us remember who these people were.

Someone Will Remember Us runs through February 23. Runtime is 105 minutes, no intermission. Tickets are available at trinityrep.com/remember, by calling (401) 351-4242, or in person at the Ticket Office at 201 Washington St., Providence, RI.

Author: Joe Siegel

Joe Siegel is a regular contributing writer for WarwickPost.com. His reporting has appeared in The Sun Chronicle in Attleboro and EDGE.