Seal Sings Its Song is a new play written by Matthew Paul Olmos; directed by Eriko Ogawa. Through it we examine what it means to be a victim in our country. It's the 1980's, a mysterious cancer has just begun to spread itself into an epidemic, Reagan holds the presidency and the brutal slaughter of seals has America in an uproar.   

 

About The Play

In early 1982, a new disease had begun spreading across the United States , as well the rest of the world.  fueled by ignorance and a lack of publicity, the illness quickly moved from ocean to ocean, infecting people from all race, sexuality and status. 

at the time, it was commonly referred to as gay-cancer, gay plague, or GRID (gay- related-immune deficiency), as it seemed to concentrate mostly on homosexuals.  however, this began to change as the soon-to-be-discovered retrovirus started showing up in women, minorities, drug addicts and hemophiliacs. 

though several news articles had been in print, the GRID story was largely ignored, save several homosexual newspapers.  in fact, while the number of infected rose into the hundreds, homosexuals remained the only citizens taking notice.

many believed that homosexuals simply did not “warrant the kind of urgent concern another set of victims would engender.”  

as randy shilts puts so matter-of-factly, in his book, the disease was moving, even if the government was not.  it was going to be a world-class disaster and nobody was even paying attention. 

and of course the most famous fact about this crisis, that then President Reagan would not speak publicly about the epidemic until October of 1987, six years after the first cases were reported and after almost sixty-thousand cases had been reported and almost half of them deceased. 

in other news, by the early 1980’s, the United States and several European countries had banned seal products.  this included most products, namely seal hunt footage on the television circuit, the world almost simultaneously fell into action and empathy for the artic mammals.   in fact, one could almost watch this immediate call-to-action as a prime example of how a country should react to a mass problem. 

this is not to say there weren’t those opposed.  many accused the United States of reacting only because the animals were aesthetically attractive, why choose this one animal, of all the hunted animals, to get behind in protest with?  others pointed to the delicate balance of nature, how seals often depleted a regions stock of Cod.

still the environmentalists could not so easily be dismissed as television stations and newspapers illustrated the sheer ugliness of seal hunts.  the weapon called a ‘hakapik’ or ‘gaff stick’ was supposed to be used almost scientifically:

according to the rules—and we do follow the rules—the seals should be killed three times. 

-First the animals are shot.

-Then we strike them with the hakapik, it goes through their brains.

-Finally, we cut the two main arteries with a knife.

however, most footage showed the hakapiks being driven into the bodies of the seals with hardly a procedural approach and the hunters themselves became looked at as sick, violent individuals taking part in a torturistic act. 

the play seal sings its song takes a look at what happens when  leaders refuse to help their wounded.  when the money to be spent, bureaucratic red tape, and public opinion all preempt aid to those in need.  From HIV/AIDS, holocaust, poverty, to whatever else might be taking the lives of people, history has shown that the United States government makes no move until enough people are dead.

-Matthew Paul Olmos

many special thanks to Randy Shilts for his amazing book:

AND THE BAND PLAYED ON