A sucker punch. That’s how I considered describing Artist Repertory Theatre’s latest production, We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as South West Africa, from the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-1915, in this review. I intended it as a compliment, but how valuable are intentions? Not very, given that we’re talking about a play that takes on decades of systemic violence and racism from an elliptical, almost painfully intelligent script by Jackie Sibblies Drury, and with direction from Kevin Jones, who translates Drury’s controlled chaos to the stage with precision and pathos.
We Are Proud to Present isn’t a sucker punch, and it would be unfair to call it one. However tempting it might be to use a cultural shorthand for jarring violence to describe a play that often punctures the more comforting aspects of theater, that phrase is much too sensational to accurately describe the feeling We Are Proud to Present produces in its audience: one of subtle yet undeniable dread, of intense, durational discomfort. It’s a feeling triggered by the best performance art, by unexpected moments of interpersonal conflict that arise during an otherwise mundane day, by the realization that a place you thought was safe isn’t. If I told you how we got there, I worry I’d be giving away too much, a predicament I don’t often find myself in as a theater reviewer, and one that leaves me summarily unprepared to even begin to know how to write about We Are Proud to Present with the care that task requires.