Synopsis

London, 2012. Joseph Potter’s living room becomes a crucible of long-buried secrets and simmering tensions as his adopted Rwandan daughter Alex grapples with her identity and heritage.

Joseph, a renowned photojournalist, and Alex, his adopted Rwandan daughter, navigate a fraught relationship in their Hampstead home. Their delicate balance is upended when Simon, a young Rwandan man claiming to be Alex’s long-lost brother, arrives. As Alex eagerly embraces her newfound connection to her roots, Joseph grows increasingly defensive and hostile.

Through tense confrontations and poignant revelations, Franzmann peels back layers of trauma, guilt, and moral ambiguity. Joseph’s celebrated career documenting global atrocities comes under scrutiny, forcing him to confront the ethics of his work and the personal toll it has taken. Alex, caught between two worlds, must reconcile her deep love for her adoptive father with the harsh truths of her past and Joseph’s role in it.

As the play hurtles towards its climax, long-held secrets burst forth in a searing confrontation that leaves no one unscathed. Franzmann deftly explores weighty themes of identity, family, racial politics, and the morality of bearing witness to suffering. In the end, we’re left to ponder: In a world rife with injustice and horror, what is our responsibility to bear witness, and at what cost to our own humanity?