2 Stories We Tell: Documentary Theater, Performance, and Justice in Tran: Olivera Simié ‘What has overtaken us that we forget so easily? Pe ccanmot repeat elf? Dab Theater! twenty years since Yugosl and social planned economy to liberal market ‘no exception. Since the end of ing with the past hed. Over the past Stories We Tell 353 twenty years and under these circumstances, many grassroots atts-based ficial projects,"* has been doct express issues often repressed by form soci out the suffering of the families of that grieve for them, and inviting coma sand of the communi ities to engage with each other. According to Robin Soans, “dos us and challenges theie opinions ® is also a theater that uses documentary m: is for plays, scholarly engagement wolving documentary alyzed in iter have been directed by prominent theater directors, all informed by the recent war and political events experienced by the people who survived both of them. The theater in this way has become a tool of social chan, often the audience to par ‘often denied or neglected by government. It reveals and pain experienced by common people and leads to acknowledgm if not healing and closure. As Nataia Govedarica ments” because they “acknowledge that something has happened and {they] have testimonial value and {offer} symbolic reparation."254 Olivera Simié s victims with Tegal redress and vietims and their abusers wi it be considered the only i after a crime has bet rendered, and court ion of offenders, or to serve asa vei authentic, and emotional truth promulgated on st ned voiecless noticeable in volumes about recent wars.** Documentary theater aims #0 Stories We Tell 255 Jo reverse silence and forget idea here isto exeate by ly ask has. I say, well that’s do a lot of work om it. I do a lot of research on ss that have to do witht fe, and it’s very personal tuse of documentary pler draws from multiple Is, and fieldwork ysis of texts and documents, ny documentary films, Almost everyone and [find the event. I goto the place. I tof is i the use of performat and consent from the spondence between the author el by the theater groups, internal viewees, the an: ny theater in Serbia analyzes thrce plays currently onstage in those co ides an important space to a shared past. It is an ative and i a way to ercate space for x. about a common, recent p356 Olivera dimensions of what happened, we eat and events, relive the events of and been saturated by violence and destntetion, the arts dramatic arts are an indispensable part of a comprchensive critical approach the legacy of violence.*" The Balkans, asa region known na new wave of d ir own pasts as well as wi provides a space for people toe experiences. Artist use theater and other art Stories We as street performance, photo exhibitions, wars. As Laura MeLeod, Jovana L importance to create space for is seen asa space for esisting amnesia. Oliver es theater “as a space in whicl cean form my own of ngs which everyone Official processes sich as judicial proceedings, ums, or monuments share the goal of forging national consensus and consol- ‘dating. shared understanding of the past in order to create a part ire. As such, official processes rai diate past violence ... demand remembrance .... and insist that violence not be repeated"* ig on stage can possess more power than the often fragmented real and helps indiies We Tell 359, they were driver create, strategies huge potent inal Scene fr Actors: MajaStories We Tell mesa ia peo 1d Kosovo.Stories We Tel PRESE: OF ABSENCE264 Years Old Wo Stories We Tell 26s, By creating a performance based remembrance, the Dah loved ones,* 1¢ Presence of Absence isRoses have a very symbolic presenc Hundreds of roses were carried by f mn camps where t ad disappeared I traces of these loved ones Persons December 10, 2013, the Inte WOMEN’S LIVES SHATTERED BY WAR: SEVEN BREATHS aths was a graduation play for Mi Srebrenica with women survivors and [ethnic] sides in the need ler the carpet and 1s designed to be released on. ‘once in Sarajevo. Re: expect this “type of play.” According to her, afew people said after th \d not talk about the war cdmits that “it is not easy c performances todiscuss wa* Olivera ies We ‘ell 26g Je carpet because f we live. Because they a EOlivera S LEARNING the new waveJustice: Global ‘Mass. Violence (New Minow, Between Vengeance and Forgiveness: Facing History after ide and Mass Violence (Boston: Beacon Press, 1998), 47. Stories We Tell 273 Stageraft (Westport, nace and Drama in Peru: ‘The ind the Yuyachkani Theater Group,” keynote ingJustice inthe Wake of Violence 3. 2. 35,201 swers Bosnian's Post [Nataka Govedatica, October 7, 2013, Br (eds), The Aris of Transitional justice: Culture, Activism, and Memory afer Atrocity, 9-13, 38, Ibid tice Responses to Sexual Violence,” study of Sexual Assan 1d Payne, The Art of Tr By. Sense: Performance and Acting Together Resistance Peacebuilding in the Region of the Former Performance and the Creative Transformation of Cor 3. rvka Knefevig, “Do posledneg daha,” Scena 516, Seplember-DecemiberStories We ell 275 view with Natiéa Govedarica, October 7, 2013, rsbane-New York iuvedena predstava “Bio je lifep i 2012, available a:b