Witness Uganda at American Repertory Theatre

It is  hard, but don’t’ give up

 by Angel Xie

We always say that we would like to help people, but when we really start to do work we realize that how difficult it is. To help, we need to overcome a lot of challenges both physically and mentally. The musical “Witness Uganda”, directed by Tony winner Diane Paulus, shows us how hard it is to help someone. The show has received many authoritative awards and has been performed throughout the world.

 The show was compelling, for it’s based on a real story. An African American – Griffin – went to Uganda in 2005 and sponsored ten students for education.  Later in 2008, Griffin and his friend, Matt, a very talented musician, started to write songs about their dreams of helping people and gradually people around the world heard their voices and donated money to support them. After they got enough money, they still encountered a lot of troubles during their life in Uganda. They were facing the totally different living conditions and the culture shocks there. Griffin wanted to give up several times, but he was affected by the enthusiasm and misfortune of the children and became good friends with them so he decided to stay and keep helping people in Uganda.  The story is really moving for people when they see how thirsty the children and people in places like Uganda want to become friends with us and get education as we do.

In Uganda, Being homosexual and knowing someone a homosexual but didn’t’ report, were both illegal things in their laws. Education, in their stereotype, was so insignificant that the libraries and school buildings were just decoration because they were never being used before Griffin came.  In that kind of environment, it’s hard to believe how Griffin could insist his faith and keep trying. Griffin was one of those strong-minded people who never gave up the hope. In this show, people would really admire Griffin and impressed by his persistence and stubborn for helping people. It is usual to meet the kind of problem Griffin had met but it is rare to see people like Griffin who can solve the problem and succeed. The story tells us it is hard to help people but the characteristic of Griffin encourages more and more people in this world to dare to support one another.

The show was really successful, part because of the music. The pieces of music combined the sounds of American popular music and the features of African music. The African accent brought the audiences a feeling of primal and passion. The music of American and African mixture sounds better than any of the American style music or African style music, because music is just like everything else- when it contains more than one culture or one style, it becomes more meaningful and special. The people in the ensemble all had a good voice and their singing pulled people into show as if the audience went to Uganda with them. The ensemble also helped to make the transitions between scenes more natural, which I think was really a good part of the design.

After seeing it, I am inspired to help people who are not as happy as we are in this world someday. And whenever I wanted to give up helping them, I believe the memories of the singing and acting in Witness Uganda will sustain my faith and overcome the challenges.  At that time, one of the voice in head will say “it is hard”, but the other one will be saying “I know, but don’t give up”.