My Lai Description

“Hauntingly beautiful... The richly evocative score alternates between bursts of dense, frenzied activity and slow, hymn-like harmonies of aching sweetness. Tenor Rinde Eckert makes Thompson a vivid and poignant character.”

– San Francisco Chronicle

KRONOSQUARTET KRONOS PERFORMING ARTS ASSOCIATION

SHORT DESCRIPTION

Through an intimate character study of the My Lai massacre whistleblower Hugh Thompson, Kronos Quartet, tenor Rinde Eckert, and Vietnamese multi-instrumentalist Vân-Ánh Võ expose the tragedy and trauma of war.

LONG DESCRIPTION

In an instant, a decision is made. The actions that follow may pass without a second thought, or may have consequences that last a lifetime. That moment may even alter history.

My Lai starts from the fateful choices of Army Warrant Officer Hugh C. Thompson Jr. on March 16, 1968. As he and his crew – Glenn Andreotta and Lawrence Colburn – flew in a helicopter over the Vietnam countryside, they witnessed American soldiers killing Vietnamese villagers – 500 women, children, and the elderly. Exhibiting extraordinary moral courage, they chose to intercede. When they failed to stop the massacre, they resolved to rescue as many civilians as they could and to never be silent about what they saw. Despite a coordinated military cover-up that vilified him as a traitor, Thompson helped bring the truth to light. His actions changed the American public’s perception of the war forever.

In Jonathan Berger and Harriet Scott Chessman’s fevered character study of Thompson, it is not his heroism that day that takes center stage, but the tragedy of how those implicated in war are haunted by the trauma of its violence – regardless of how they acted. His story emerges in fragments as tenor Rinde Eckert, portraying Thompson near the end of his life, reflects on past and present, trapped in a web of fury, sorrow, and yearning. Careening from reflective arias to disoriented recitatives, Eckert’s expressive voice soars above the virtuosic playing of the legendary Kronos Quartet and Vietnamese multi-instrumentalist Vân-Ánh Võ.

2018 marks 50 years since the My Lai massacre.

MORE PRESS

“Absorbing, eloquent... [Harriett Scott] Chessman's memory play mixes poetry, slang, and hurt with fierce brilliance. Eckert's tour de force performance dominated "My Lai." I couldn't imagine a finer singing actor in this role.” – Chicago Tribune “Created a 75-minute sensory immersion... powerful” – San Jose Mercury “Transfixing… Eckert and his colleagues etch an indelible portrait of a man unable to make sense of what he had lived through 30-some years before.” – Musical America “Gripping… accomplishes much with just six musicians, and in a production whose simplicity is paramount to its emotional impact” – San Francisco Classical Voice

updated August 24, 2017 | page 2 of 3

RESOURCES

VIDEOS ABOUT MY LAI First Tuesday’s “Four Hours in My Lai” (1989 television documentary based on the book by Michael Bilton, which aired on the UK’s ITV) youtu.be/1NwnnLnvQYA *bootleg version – KPAA does not recommend sharing publicly 60 Minutes’ “My Lai Revisited” (1971 television news magazine segment, which aired on CBS) cbsnews.com/videos/my-lai-revisited/ American Experience presents “My Lai” (2010 PBS documentary film) pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/mylai/ youtu.be/l_p5sQHNw2g *bootleg version – KPAA does not recommend sharing publicly Democracy Now!’s “My Lai Revisited: 47 Years Later” (2015 interview with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh, who exposed the My Lai massacre to the public in 1969) democracynow.org/2015/3/25/my_lai_revisited_47_years_later

IN DEPTH

ARTICLES Literary Hub essay “How to Write about a Massacre: Harriet Scott Chessman Grapples with the Story of My Lai” by Chessman (2017) http://lithub.com/how-to-write-about-a-massacre/ Seymour M. Hersh’s 1969 St. Louis Post-Dispatch articles “Lieutenant Accused of Murdering 109 Civilians,” “Hamlet Attack Called ‘Point-Blank Murder,’” and “Ex-GI Tells of Killing Civilians at Pinkville” http://pierretristam.com/Bobst/library/wf-200.htm The New Yorker’s “Coverup” parts I and II (1972) by Seymour M. Hersh http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1972/01/22/i-coverup http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1972/01/29/ii-coverup BOOKS Beautiful Souls: The Courage and Conscience of Ordinary People in Extraordinary Times by Eyal Press The Forgotten Hero of My Lai: The Hugh Thompson Story (Revised Edition) by Trent Angers Four Hours in My Lai by Michael Bilton & Kevin Sim The Beauty of Ordinary Things by Harriet Scott Chessman The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien Carrying the Darkness : The Poetry of the Vietnam War by W. D. Ehrhart My Lai : A Brief History With Documents by James S. Olson and Randy Roberts

updated August 24, 2017 | page 3 of 3