SYNOPSIS In "See me! Hear me!" Actress Kathleen Thompson takes her audience on Ph.D. Gertrude Simmons's sabbatical journey as she sets out to gather firsthand interviews and statistics on entrepreneurship across the globe. Simmons is a confident economics professor with fifteen years of tenure under her belt and a sure disciple of the laws of supply and demand. She is certain she will meet the world's foremost entrepreneurs on the trip, and, in a twisted way, she does. They are businessmen, "Mr. Good-time Sex Tourist," and pimps who rake in profits by buying and selling thousands of women and children in the global human market.

CLOSER TO HOME CubPub overheard someone from the NYC Urban Project reaching out to another audience member. The story is, NYC Urban Project is working jointly with other key organizations in New York City on modern-day slavery. So heads up, Lions; this could be your 2010 summer internship.

...Hit jump for the review

REVIEW As the closing event to the Veritas Forum's 2009 program, Thompson's play "See me! Hear me!" brought global to a discussion on modern-day slavery that had for the most part centered on Asia and Africa. Whereas Nicholas Kristof and Kaign Christy on Monday's Veritas event focused on China, Cambodia and other countries on the Asian continent; in the play "See me! Hear me!", no country escapes Thompson's ire. As Simmons passed through Berlin, Ukemar (sic), Phnom Penh, India, Dubai, Kenya, and finally returned to the U.S. before our eyes, Thompson's finger of judgment simultaneously flashed words, statistics, and images of sex-trafficking in these locations like blazing neon green-colored street signs onto the projection screen, setup beside the actress's simple but numerous props.

At times, the multimedia quality of the play detracted from the intensity of Thompson's portrayal of modern-day slaves. It was never quite clear to me when I was supposed to watch Thompson instead of the projections, or the projections instead of her acting; and the accompanying music tended to be too loud whenever it came on.

Moreover, in some ways, Thompson's statements on modern-day slavery sunk to flawed generalizations as Thompson repeatedly harangued men (e.g., pimps, boyfriends, fiancés, etc.) as the principal villains in the saga of sex-trafficking. But as Christy explained with a sobering observation on Monday, it is not as simple as labeling men as The Problem because many brothels are run by women who are not very different from Thompson's villainous pimps. Brothel owners consider themselves simply as professionals in a business and think no more of the sex-slaves than as commodities to be sold.

But where Kristof hesitated and changed topics, Thompson's play gave an admirable definitive answer that yes, there is slavery and sex-trafficking in America. It's not something that only the backward countries in Asia and Africa engage in, and Europe is no exception. There are girls in Eastern Europe being kidnapped or betrayed, sold, and transported across borders to produce profits and perverted pleasures for their owners in Western Europe.

Given such proliferation, what can be done? In the Q&A following the play, Thompson answered that modern-day slavery is "one of those cycling things where the snake eats the tail and goes round and round." Sex has been distorted as an outlet for lust, so what needs to be done is "to reeducate families about the real purpose of sex." What you can do personally is, "understanding that everyone has a gift that they can give, begin to think creatively about what you can do as a person and what you can offer to NGO's" that are doing amazing work for victims of modern-day slavery. And in the face of such grisly, stomach-turning realities, Thompson encouraged the audience to hold on to hope and not give into despair. Thompson said, "I believe absolutely that there is restoration...and healing for captives."