by Jody Tuso-Key

Atlanta-March 19, 2020

I have an apple 🍎 every morning for breakfast (I’m eating a Honey-crisp as I write this).

Sometimes they’re sweet, sometimes tart; other times they have no flavor at all. I get them at Ingles, Sam’s, Kroger….I don’t really think much about them, just know I like an apple for breakfast every day. Apples are the symbol of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. There’s also the old saying, “An Apple a day keeps the doctor away.” As well as I know apples, I was not prepared for the depth and beauty BINA’s SIX APPLES. Alliance Theatre’s Atlanta premiere is this new work has given me a fresh appreciation for the fruit I’ve taken for granted.

BINA’S SIX APPLES takes place in war-torn Korea. Bina’s family is fleeing to the south to escape the war. The show opens with 10 year-old Bina sitting in her treehouse perched on one of the family’s apple trees. Her father tells her she must carry apples for the journey south. Bina decides to carry six apples; one for each member of her family, father, mother, sister, brother, and grandma.

As she and her family begin to journey south, they encounter a missile strike which separates them. Bina continues to journey south, hoping to find her family. The people she encounters along the way ask fir her apples, but she feels she can’t give them up because they are for her family.

Every performance in this show is Key Noteworthy, but especially Olivia Lampert as Bina. She takes the audience in her journey and reveals her thoughts, fears, and hopes so beautifully. Her performance and the performances of the rest of the cast are so convincing, that even through the set is minimal, for a while we feel as if we are in a war torn country, journeying alongside Bina and tinting fir her every step of the way.

This is a heartbreaking and heartwarming story if war, family, sacrifice, and love. Will Bina give her apples away? Will she find her family? To find out, get your tickets at https://alliancetheatre.org/production/2021-22/binas-6-apples?gclid=Cj0KCQjw5-WRBhCKARIsAAId9Fkfm3S6IR_YFwDpLiKxpCG0Ho7zGWquyMg9oOeVzDa4LEPT1gwcCNwaAqt1EALw_wcB

A final question I have: Where did the prop master get those perfect, delicious looking apples?