Sex trafficking play hits close to home
Black Press Media Staff
She Has A Name, by award winning playwright Andrew Kooman, is playing in Kelowna this week.
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Vernon Morning Star
She Has A Name, by award winning playwright Andrew Kooman, is playing in Kelowna this week.

Starring B.C. actors Evelyn Chew, who appeared in Caravan Farm Theatre’s 2010 summer production Everyone, and Carl Kennedy, She Has A Name bares chilling truths about human trafficking in the sex trade.

The fast-moving, episodic play features a Canadian lawyer working undercover to expose a human trafficking ring based in Thailand. To win his case, Jason (Kennedy) must convince his key witness, a young prostitute known only as Number 18 (Chew), to risk her life and testify.

In partnership with Raise Their Voice, Burnt Thicket Theatre has presented She Has A Name in 13 cities and seven provinces across Canada.

“She Has a Name is a powerful piece of theatre that both thrilled and inspired audiences during our successful world premiere,” said director Stephen Waldschmidt. “We look forward to bringing this timely story to thousands more Canadians from Halifax to Victoria.”

“The play will open the eyes of Canadians to the reality that there are millions of innocent victims in the world today who live in these brutal conditions,” added Mark Wollenberg, the Western Canadian representative of International Justice Mission Canada, an agency that works overseas to secure justice for victims of human trafficking.

“But more importantly, we hope that it will open the hearts of those who attend to become engaged in bringing an end to human trafficking. This play brings the nameless victims of trafficking into our western world and makes them all too close and too real to ever forget. Canadians must see this play.”

She Has a Name continues tonight through to Friday at 7:30 p.m. in the Mary Irwin Theatre in Kelowna’s Rotary Centre for the Arts. An audience talkback panel of human right experts will take place immediately after the show tonight.

For tickets, visit shehasaname.net or call 250-717-5304.