Dirt (2/4/15)

Dirt, written by Robert Schneider in 1993 and starring Christopher Domig, is a one-man play reflecting on the racism and xenophobia of Western people in the way that they react to illegal immigrants, in this case, Sad (pronounced sahd), an Iraqi.

It was thought provoking, but less so than I thought it was going to be. Mr. Domig’s performance was very good in a role that he has been playing on and off since 2007, in a translation from the German by Paul Dvorak. Some parts that didn’t quite ring true, if our Western city was, presumably, New York, included ‘not seeing any dark faces’ on the streets.

Sad makes his meager living selling roses on the street, and is convinced (rightly so) that the ‘40-year-old men’ sort of look through him, even when they buy his roses. His rants, in his tiny apartment with no mailbox or nameplate on the door—he’s desperately fearful of the authorities—range from loving his new country to loving the English language to loving park benches, though he would never sit on one. He doesn’t deserve that right. What we’re not sure of is whether that’s his belief or ours. While it’s a one-man show, there are other characters referred to, including his mother, wife, and son, still in Iraq, and an off-stage roommate, another illegal immigrant, who is an Egyptian.

It doesn’t help that, about three-quarters into the 70-minute, intermission-less monologue, Sad tells us that he’s been lying. About his name, his wife’s name, about everything. Great; now we have to both re-think everything he’s said and decide what we really believe and what we think he really believes.

At times touching, humorous, and eerie, it does make us (or at least me) look at our own ideas concerning illegal immigrants. Whether it will change anything is a deeply personal situation. It made a strong case, if a bit in a nebulous way. I rarely do this, but I went online and sought out reviews of other iterations of the play—all of them that I found were performed by Mr. Domig—and I found the same, slightly wishy-washy response as mine reflected in quite a few of them.

I’m glad I saw it, and thank you, Austrian Cultural Forum New York, for presenting it. I just wanted it to be a little bit more than it was. Or maybe it was just me.

ConcertMeister