At the Victory Gardens’ Biograph Theater, three actors play teenagers orphaned during the Sudanese conflict. These characters represent a sliver of the millions affected by the conflict in Africa’s most populated country.

The actors are part of “The Lost Boys of Sudan,” which runs until April 25 at the Biograph, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave. The characters they play were forced on a dangerous journey to reach a refugee camp after their homes

were destroyed.

Lonnie Carter, the production’s writer, was inspired to write the play in 2003 after reading a New York Times article about how nearly 40,000 children made the long trek to Kenya after losing their homes.

Eventually they would make their way to several cities including Fargo, N.D., where the second act of the play takes place.

“When these boys landed in Fargo, it was 2 a.m. and it was February,” Carter said in a telphone interview. “They looked out the window of the plane and it was all black. They said to themselves, ‘Will there ever be light again?’”

Carter talked with many of the refugees in 2004 when the production first began in Minneapolis, Minn. He and about a dozen others visited the children in Fargo, talking to nearly 100 of the survivors in an Episcopal church that opened its doors to the boys.

The play opened in Minneapolis, but has gone through changes on its way to the Biograph Theater. One of the male leads was rewritten as a girl, and much of the stage design was

pared down.

Assistant Director Sean Kelly said the choice to use less was intended to enhance the actors’ performances and the props used for the show. For that reason, they decided to use actual weapons instead of the more abstract shapes they initially gave the actors.

“To see a weapon is already a scary experience, but to see in this production, where there is nothing else on stage except bodies, puts a thicker frame around it. It really makes you consider the object and what this object can do to you.”

Kelly said he didn’t know many specifics of the situation in Sudan, but has learned much more since production started.

“We’ve had many lost boys come to the show,” Kelly said. “One came at the beginning of the rehearsal process and he spoke to us about his experiences, many of which are in the play.”

Survivors also participated in a panel discussion on March 25 hosted by HelpSUDAN, a nonprofit organization formed by the Lost Boys of Sudan. Throughout the entire run, the theater and The Pacodes Library Project are collecting books to help build a new library in southern Sudan.

The play has elements of humor and tragedy. Much of the comic relief comes from main characters’ culture shock upon entering Fargo.

While sitting on a raised platform meant to represent the back of a truck bed, they bundled up and gazed at the strange environment. They repeatedly asked the question, “What is cold?”

The true tragedy is not skipped, as two of the main characters see their parents killed.

Carter said it was hard to strike that balance, but wanted it to reflect the attitudes of Lost Boys he talked to.

He said he found that the Sudanese people he met share a common opt-

mism despite the destruction of their homes and families.

His goal for the play is to communicate those hardships and share their experience with the rest of the world.

“We can’t just live on Michigan Avenue or in Lincoln Park,” Carter said. “I happen to be sitting in the woods of Connecticut at the moment. I could just sort of sit here and not pay any attention to what’s going on in the world, but I think that’s wrong. We have to know what’s happening or we’ll all just cease to exist.”

chronicle@colum.edu