Syringas Are Lilacs

Has your kid ever come to you and asked for the meaning of a term related to racism or bigotry? How did you answer? Did you kick yourself for not having initiated the discussion much earlier, when you would have been prepared?

There is a local production of an award-winning play by Pamela Gien, The Syringa Tree. It’s a one-woman show with two dozen characters, but it focuses on the thoughts and feelings of a six-year-old South African girl growing up in the sixties, during the height of apartheid. The interactions that she observes between herself, her family, and the family that they love and trust as they have with reciprocity for decades, in the middle of the chaos of South African society are only that: observations. As a child, the girl lacks the presupposed notions and, due to her upbringing, lacks the attitude of antagonism that is so hard to overcome for so many people. The audience is shown the sometimes violent, sometimes subtle, always insidious things that we as sentient beings are capable of doing to each other when we hate. As Elizabeth grows, so does our understanding.