“Every man has two deaths, when he is buried in the ground and the last time someone says his name. In some ways men can be immortal.”
― Ernest Hemingway
It is not uncommon for us to seek immortality. We etch names into granite, erect statues of generals, priests, saints, and martyrs, and the chance that the person who sees those names hundreds of years into the future will know that person is slim to none. Still, we seek glory in our brief life span. We raise banners and flags with names, faces, and titles.
We also bring down statues. I remember vividly in April 2003, just a couple of weeks before my birthday, I was still a sophomore in High School and the footage of US forces pulling down the statue of Saddam Hussein was all over the news. Weeks prior, when coverage of the invasion began, a friend of mine called me. We glorified the conflict and cheered as missiles fell out of the sky on to the Iraqi soil.
I don’t glorify it anymore, and there’s a lingering sense of shame that I ever did. Plays like Someone Will Remember Us remind me of the entire spectrum of emotions I’ve dealt with in fifteen years. In the hour and forty-five minutes that the play runs, it weaves the tales of several lives together. Throughout the show, knots are tangled and untangled as grief, loss, sorrow, and rage overcome each of the characters. The war machine literally tears some of them apart with its gnashing gears.
I wish I could tell you to go see this play. Unfortunately, I’m writing this while they perform their last two shows of the year. I wish I had caught it sooner, but truth be told, I was afraid to confront the emotions and memories that I’ve carried from my time in service.
Still, I’m grateful for this piece of art. It is a stunning, impactful, thought-provoking view of war, with a specific emphasis on the recent battlefields in Iraq. I am beyond inspired by the writers, directors, actors, and technical crew that brought this play together. It is nothing short of life changing.
Someone Will Remember Us
By Deborah Salem Smith and Charlie Thurston
Created by Dr. Michelle Cruz, Deborah Salem Smith, and Charlie Thurston
Directed by Christopher Windom
January 23 – February 23, 2025
In 2006, Trinity Rep told the true, poignant stories of Rhode Islanders deployed in Iraq with the play Boots on the Ground. Nearly 20 years later, how does this legacy live on … and what have we forgotten? Someone Will Remember Us interlaces the real-life testimonies of U.S. military veterans, a Gold Star family, Iraqi civilians, and refugees living in Rhode Island. As military conflict wages on multiple fronts across the world, this production paints a moving portrait of the innumerable tolls of war, and how we find connection through it all.