Katiana Was Here @ Sunrise Theatre

Katiana... is a devastating story: a lively and born-to-be-a-leader sixteen-year-old, she finds out she is affected by leukodystrophy – an incurable degenerative disease that prevents her from walking, moving, seeing and, ultimately, speaking and breathing.  As Katiana gets worse and worse, the play follows the reactions of her family and friends, and suggests that some good might come even from terrible misfortune.

Laura Guthrie, who stars as Katiana’s lovely and responsible younger sister Semeli, also wrote and directed the play, and composed the music for it. A twenty-three year old from the Highlands affected by a rare disease called Maple Syrup Urine Disease, Guthrie wrote a touching, powerful play that explores reactions to disease and death, and to what might come after. The play does a great job at exploring the responses and personalities of several characters, and although its finale is watered down by the ending song, performed by the whole cast, it is an incisive observation of mourning and the necessity to let go of what we can’t hold. [Claudia Marinaro]