Released of his guilt

Based on a true story, ‘A Patch of Earth’ describes a war crimes trial and a former Croat soldier, who took part in the massacre of up to 1,200 people. IF YOU GO

* WHAT: Orange Coast College’s production of “A Patch of Earth”

* WHEN: 8 tonight and Saturday; 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Special noon performance for OCC students and staff today. * WHERE: OCC’s Robert B. Moore Theatre, 2701 Fairview Road, Costa Mesa

* COST: $7 for advanced tickets in Bursar’s Office; $8 at the door

* CONTACT: (714) 432-5880

The plot is complex and the political ramifications are far-reaching in playwright Kitty Felde’s mostly true tale about an international war crimes trial.

For her, the story boils down to a few questions of morality: “What would we do if our world fell apart and our country fell into civil war?” Felde said.

“What if we didn’t want to fight but they gave us a gun and said shoot?

“What if I had confessed to killing all these people? What would people think about me, and what would I do?”

In Felde’s play, those questions torment Drazen Erdemovic, a young Croat soldier who fought with the Bosnian Serb army during the Bosnian War.

As part of the Srebrenica massacre of 1995, he was forced to execute 70 Bosnian Muslim civilians in an open field. Up to 1,200 unarmed people were killed in that massacre.

According to Erdemovic, he had no choice in the matter -- he was to kill or be killed.

Erdemovic was the only soldier to expose the brutality of the Srebrenica attacks. A year later, he stood before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, created by the United Nations, to present his story.

Which leads to the final -- and, according to Felde, most intensely debated -- question in the play:

What should the criminal justice system do when a person who has admitted to taking part in mass murder comes forth to expose wrongdoings?

“They are all big questions,” Felde said. “I thought people could identify with them.”

Felde, who hosts “Talk of the City” for National Public Radio affiliate KPCC-FM (89.3), covered the Erdemovic trial in 1996 for the radio station.

She listened as Erdemovic pleaded guilty to the count of murder as a crime against humanity at the trial at The Hague. As a result, he served five years in prison.

“It’s a story that kept haunting me,” Felde said. “I needed to get this off my chest. I came back to America, and people said, ‘What does this have to do with anything in my life?’”

Felde decided to tell them through the theater. She penned “A Patch of Earth” using trial transcripts and a little imagination -- she admits all of her recollections aren’t accurate -- and aren’t supposed to be.

The play runs through Sunday at Orange Coast College.

What emerges is a weighty production heavy on imagery. In numerous scenes, faceless ghosts come back to haunt Erdemovic.

The play debuted in Buffalo, N.Y., six years ago. Felde said it is getting a second wind on college campuses. She spoke with Orange Coast College drama professor Alex Golson about staging the show on campus. (Both had attended UC Irvine.)

“I wanted to do it right away,” Golson said. “It’s timely. It’s about personal responsibility and what war does to an individual.”

Felde spoke to the student cast as it was preparing for the show this fall. She also spoke to audience members Wednesday night after the West Coast premiere of the production.

She pointed out that Erdemovic’s trial marked the first time in half a century that an international war crimes tribunal handed out a sentence.

Calling the trial “her generation’s Nuremberg,” Felde said she didn’t think Saddam Hussein would be sitting in a courtroom if not for the Erdemovic case.

Drama and emotion fill the final scenes of the play. By the end, Golson said the main character has been released of his guilt.