The Lost Boys Of Sudan

Three boys meet in the worst way: fleeing the horrors of war. And as they team up on a perilous journey to a refugee camp, they exchange heroic survival stories, song and even laughter. Thus begins an extraordinary passage that eventually takes three boys of the Dinka tribe to, of all places, Fargo, North Dakota, where drought, crocodiles and guerrillas are replaced by malls, video games, and Skittles.

"Much as, say, Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation was an excellent movie about jet lag, this is an excellent play about culture shock. And about making your way as a stranger in a strange land. Like the Coen brothers (who love this same human and physical landscape), Carter satirizes the good people of the Upper Midwest while celebrating their fundamental decency " -Chris Jones, The Chicago Tribune

"Several tall, young, slender African men bearing beaming smiles and the slightest hint of ritual scars on their foreheads strolled through the lobby of the Victory Gardens Theater on Sunday night. They were the real 'lost boys' of Sudan - victims of the horrific civil wars that raged in that enormous, oil-rich country from 1983 to 2005, leaving the population decimated. Now twentysomething, and residents of Chicago, the men had come to watch playwright Lonnie Carter's immensely imaginative, linguistically dizzying, tragicomic rendering of their history. To be sure, it's a fantasia rather than a documentary, but one that captures the essence of their experiences in a uniquely theatrical way." -Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times

"THE LOST BOYS OF SUDAN turns out to be more joyous than the title might suggest ... theater sometimes can do what documentaries sometimes can't - tell stories with the power of poetry, metaphor and music ... all the musical language in Lonnie Carter's script. There's a palpable sense of magical realism in his play." -David Hawley, Pioneer Press (Minneapolis)

"Playwright Carter says that his script is 'hip-hop infused,' and it is, at times. But mostly, I felt it was in the great tradition of English verse that moves from Shakespeare and Marlowe to Ntozake Shange and beyond." -Paul Thompson, BroadwayWorld.com