Undying Spirit -- A Young Artist With Aids Inspires Moving Children's Play

There is an old Scandinavian folk song that young Benjamin Saar loved to hear again and again.

It tells the story of three boats that sail far off together: one red, one blue, one yellow. The red and blue boats eventually return to harbor. But the yellow boat travels straight up to the sun.

That enchanted golden vessel appears in an incandescent drawing by Benjamin, a talented painter who created scores of vivid artworks before his death from pediatric AIDS at age 8.

And it provides the radiant central metaphor in "The Yellow Boat," an extraordinary 75-minute theater piece that chronicles Benjamin's life of "eight years, four months and twenty-nine days."

The award-winning play, recommended for young people in grades 2 through 12, explores Benjamin's relationships with teachers, doctors, parents, and friends, his hemophilia, and his life-affirming devotion to art.

Written and directed by his father, David Saar, it will be presented at the Charlotte Martin Theatre tomorrow through Feb. 19. A special exhibit of Benjamin's original drawings, along with works by other hemophiliac youths, runs concurrently at the Pacific Arts Center.

Part of father's healing

How does a parent cope with the inestimable loss of an only child - a child, clearly, of remarkable sensitivity and creative gifts?

For Saar, developing "The Yellow Boat," and guiding it through productions in three cities has been "part of my healing."

Founder-director of the innovative Childsplay theater for young people in Tempe, Ariz., Saar insists the stage piece "is about life, not death. It's a celebration of living and an affirmation of the power and wisdom in one child, which I believe is present in all kids."

Lanky and gray-bearded, clad in his favorite uniform of blue jeans and leather vest, Saar radiates warmth and gentleness. He smiles often, chuckles readily. And he is remarkably generous about sharing his family's painful yet heartening story.

"The play isn't really a documentary, more like a series of snapshots," he explained, at SCT's Seattle Center headquarters. "It's not exactly our life. But it does capture the moments from our experience that were too big to keep to ourselves."

One of those "big" moments came in April 1986. That's when Saar and his Norwegian-born wife Sonja, a textile artist, first learned their son had contracted HIV through a blood transfusion.

Saar says Benjamin had adjusted well to hemophilia: "He was a very active child, and from the time he was little, drawing was a way to explore his life and feelings.

"He would go for months with no bleeds, then have a few bad days. But his attitude was, if you have leg braces on for a while, you learn to play tag on crutches. And he'd be drawing with one arm, while the other was hooked up to a transfusion."

A terrifying diagnosis

The pediatric AIDS diagnosis, however, was far more terrifying than hemophilia - and mystifying. In 1986, few youngsters had contracted HIV or AIDS; Benjamin was one of the first in Arizona. (As of 1994, according to figures from the Centers for Disease Control, 5,700 children have had AIDS, and 3,100 of them have died.)

Information about AIDS was still sketchy, when news got out that Benjamin was ill. And he suffered the kinds of discrimination faced by other infected kids - including young Ryan White, who became a symbol of AIDS awareness.

Benjamin was immediately expelled from his private school. He lost many friends when parents afraid AIDS could be transmitted through casual contact would not let their young children play with him.

During a lengthy initial hospitalization for AIDS-related intestinal problems, the normally gregarious Benjamin withdrew into a shell. "He stopped talking and drawing," recalls his father. "But then, thank goodness, Joy came into his life."

Empowering friend

Saar credits Joy Goldberger, a pediatric therapist, with reviving Ben's zest for life. "She empowers children, so they're part of the medical process, not victimized by it. She got him to speak and draw again.

"We got him into a new school, he found a new set of friends - a better one. And he taught his doctors and nurses a lot, paving the way for improved care for other kids with AIDS."

Goldberger turns up as a character in "The Yellow Boat." So do David and Sonja Saar. And little Eddie, a composite figure based on several youngsters, who first rejects Benjamin and later becomes his closest friend.

Saar devised the script with the help of a $15,000 "Dare to Dream" grant from the Seattle-based Winifred Ward Memorial Fund, and the co-sponsorship of the Metro Theatre in St. Louis. After workshops at University of Texas and Washington, D.C.'s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the 18th and final draft of "The Yellow Boat" premiered in 1993 at Childsplay.

A St. Louis version is still touring the schools, and the play was recently exported to the Stregagatto Festival in Italy.

For squeamish parents, Saar promises "The Yellow Boat" is much less graphic than, say, the current hospital TV dramas. There are no scary needles, no stage blood: designer Greg Lucas employs fabric imaginatively to illuminate aspects of Ben's life and his illness. And Saar concocted a method of "drawing in the air," so that actor Jon Gentry (who plays Benjamin, and was actually one of the boy's baby-sitters) can create on-the-spot paintings.

Saar cherishes the hundreds of letters he's received from children who've seen "The Yellow Boat" in other cities. A typical response from a Tempe fifth grader: "I think you are very brave and strong. I think the play was great. It helped me to respect and understand two boys at my school who have hemophilia."

"Kids handle the story just fine," assures Saar. "Ultimately it's a happy thing, I do believe that. It's about living, and dying is part of life."

Drawings on display

Saar does regret he could not find a way to incorporate Benjamin's actual drawings into the show. But a generous sampling of those candid, colorful renderings is now on display at the Pacific Arts Center.

Some of Benjamin's images confront his two illnesses honestly, but also with humor. Sketches of skeletons have shaded areas showing "where it hurts." A whimsical homemade picture book titled "My Doctor Wobbles" is Benjamin's teasing portrait of his physician.

Exhibited also are fanciful depictions of the Saar family home, a spooky Halloween scene, and, of course, that shimmering portrait of the yellow boat sailing into a magnificent flower-shaped sun.

"You can see Benjamin's wonderful sense of color and design in these pictures," says Pacific Arts Center director Laura Poston. "His drawings are very complex and full of detail, and he expresses his feelings very strongly."

Poston enriched the showing with sculptures and other artwork created by young hemophiliacs (including some who are HIV-positive) at Camp I-VY, an annual retreat sponsored by the Puget Sound Blood Center.

According to center spokesman Keith Warnack, there are 450 hemophiliacs living in Washington, and about 70 are HIV-infected because of tainted transfusions received in the early 1980s. Due to stricter controls imposed on state blood supplies since 1985, none are young children. But some are in their teens.

"A show like `The Yellow Boat' can only increase public awareness about AIDS, and about hemophilia," said Victoria Andrews, director of the Hemophilia Foundation of Washington, another exhibit co-sponsor.

"Ben's drawings and spirit and humor helped people around him change their attitudes," Saar explains softly. "I hope his play can do the same thing."