Christopher Gunness, spokesperson for the UN Relief Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, will lecture on “Chaos, Refugees, and Gaza Today” on Thursday, December 6 at 4 p.m. at Jorgensen Gallery, prior to a 7:30 p.m. performance of the play, Pentecost. Pentecost, written by Tony Award-winning playwright David Edgar is being performed November 29 through December 7 at Jorgensen. A brief synopsis of the play is below:
Tony Award-winning playwright David Edgar’s (Nicholas Nickleby) epic play Pentecost is one part artistic whodunit and one part hostage thriller. The authenticity of a newly-discovered painting, found in an Eastern European church, presents a tantalizing puzzle that could permanently alter our concepts of art. Cultures clash in the debate among a curator, art historian, church official and even tourists who are then suddenly taken hostage by a group of asylum-seeking refugees from a variety of world trouble spots. David Edgar’s extraordinary language is often compared to Bernard Shaw’s in this incendiary collision between art and politics that New York Times critic Alvin Klein said, “sets the brain spinning in the highest gear; there’s no controlling where wonderment will fly or land.” Contains adult sexual content and male nudity.
Gunness is a former BBC News reporter and served as UN spokesman in Sarajevo during the Balkan Wars. He will speak on chaos, refugees, and US foreign policy in today’s Gaza. His talk will be followed by a reception.
The lecture is free and open to the public. Tickets for the performance of Pentecost are $16.50- $28. Tickets and information are available at the Jorgensen box office.
The lecture and performances are sponsored by the Foundations of Humanitarianism program in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Human Rights Institute, and the Humanities Institute.