Looking Back on Iraq, Twenty Years Later

Ashley Aldarondo as Angelica (foreground), Allison Jones as Millareisha (background), Rachael Warren as Regina, and Stephen Thorne as Ed in Someone Will Remember Us. (Photo by Mark Turek)

In 2006, Trinity Repertory Company premiered a new show that touched on current events in a way not quite seen before on a Rhode Island stage. In Boots on the Ground, writer Deborah Salem Smith interviewed close to seventy soldiers, their families and others adjacent to the Iraq War, distilling their stories into a ninety-minute play that explored the war’s impact on Rhode Islanders and their loved ones back home.

Two decades later, Smith and her writing partner, Charlie Thurston, revisit that legacy in Someone Will Remember Us, a poignant look back at the Iraq War not only through the eyes of soldiers, but those whose lives were immeasurably changed by the devastation wrought on the ground. Weaving together the experience of twelve individuals, the show — playing at Trinity Rep through Feb. 23 — reminds us of the repercussions that continue today.

“Many of the people in the play have been trying to rebuild their lives for fifteen, sixteen years now,” Smith says. “There is just such bravery and perseverance. And a surprising amount of hope from people in constantly chasing a better, calmer version of their lives.”

The play was initiated in 2022 when co-creator Michelle Cruz, at the time the theater’s community engagement officer, decided to revisit the topic that had resonated so profoundly with audiences more than a decade earlier. Thurston is a member of the theater’s resident acting company who met Smith when he took her playwriting course while pursuing his Brown/Trinity M.F.A. degree. The two interviewed close to thirty individuals, including Rhode Island residents and those with other ties to the state.

“It wasn’t long after the [2021] withdrawal from Afghanistan that we started having these conversations,” Thurston recalls. “In that zeitgeist moment, people were suddenly talking about again these foreign wars.”

The pair made the decision early on to include stories of both veterans as well as those who lived in Iraq during the war. They interviewed Omar Bah, founder of the Refugee Dream Center, and incorporated the stories of Iraqi refugees who received services from the center. Several of the play’s subjects attended Wednesday night’s opening night performance.

“There’s definitely a little bit of nerves there because we wanted to get it right,” Thurston says. “The stories are deeply personal, and they were incredibly generous and vulnerable to share them with us — some of the most challenging moments of their life. And so you want to approach that with great care.”

Josephine Moshiri Elwood as Wafaa, Jade Ziane as Kamal, and Jihan Haddad as Sara. (Photo by Mark Turek)

The final result, directed by Christopher Windom, is a collage of stories tied together by themes of loss and connection in a new place. The timeline moves back and forth from 1979 to the present and stops at several events in between, with Tanya Orellana’s cleverly incorporated stage design providing a visual marker. One of the challenges, Smith and Thurston say, is that audience members come to the performance with varying levels of knowledge about the historical events portrayed, depending on their age and role at the time. The writers solved this by having characters deliver brief historical recaps that provide background to the events without pulling the audience too far out of the narrative.

“That tension between the personal and the larger geopolitical, it felt really important to get to listen to people’s experiences,” Smith says.

Looming over everything is 9/11, recalled in a set reminiscent of an airport waiting area. Though only briefly discussed, the United States’ motivations after that pivotal event are reexamined through the lasting impact on Americans and Iraqis alike. Though the actions discussed onstage span states and countries, all of the characters eventually reveal ties to Rhode Island, reminding the audience even global events have unavoidable shockwaves back home.

The play follows a style Smith describes as “docudrama,” where actors present lines from interviews in the subjects’ own words, if not always their exact inflections. An ensemble cast of eight actors portrays twelve characters, with some actors performing double or triple duty. Two of the actors, Stephen Thorne and Rachael Warren, performed in Boots on the Ground in 2006.

The Refugee Dream Center and Operation Stand Down Rhode Island are serving as community partners for the show, with Trinity Rep providing information on the two organizations as audiences leave the theater. Smith says the decision to choose community partners was inspired by the response to Boots on the Ground, when audiences expressed interest in giving back.

“People left Boots on the Ground and felt a lot of empathy, and we got a lot of feedback from that show that people didn’t quite know what to do with all that empathy,” she says.

In her years as a playwright, Smith adds, she’s learned she’s often surprised by what sticks with audiences when they walk out the door. Both playwrights expressed hope that viewers will be moved by the stories of human resiliency contained onstage.

“The play is hopeful and about human perseverance and provides people the opportunity to radically listen,” Thurston says. “Those things are really important right now. To hear different perspectives in an open way and marvel at what people are capable of — that all these people went through so much but still believe in the good of humanity.”

Someone Will Remember Us plays at Trinity Rep through Sunday, Feb. 23. Visit trinityrep.com or call 351-4242 for tickets.

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