Requiem for an Electric Chair

Toto Kisaku is an award-winning Congolese playwright, actor, director, and producer. Detained for putting on plays critical of the Congolese government, Toto arrived in the United States in 2015 seeking political asylum, which he was granted in 2018. His one-man play, Requiem for an Electric Chair tells the story of his persecution and eventual exile from Congo, and opens with his interview with a US immigration officer. Through this narrative, Toto shares the story of his arrest, imprisonment, and near-death in Congo, and shows us how his art ultimately saved his life.