Abstract:
How do you put genocide and mass violence on stage? How can you possibly imagine what it was like to walk in the shoes of the real-life victims of violence? Is it a transgression to give perpetrators a voice on stage when they have denied voice to so many others? What does a play performed in a professional context have to contribute to social change? This paper considers playwriting that takes up the topics of genocide and mass violence with a focus on the creative strategies of the writers – how do they carry out this difficult work? What is common to each of the plays is that fact that the writers are outsiders to their various subjects. I am interested in how they stage the perspective of outsiders and how they explore the responsibilities of distant bystanders and belated witnesses – those who come after or who watch from a distance. Each of the writers is interested in blurring the distinctions of then and now, here and there, you and I, often through the use of metatheatre. Foremost I want to think about how we might read such blurring from an ethical perspective: who may speak for whom? To whom does the experience of suffering belong?
