Abstract
How can cultural producers invite people to learn about human rights violations in ways that help them both to prevent future abuses and to strengthen relationships across differences? Remembering the Unspeakable will provide support for the argument that constructive representations that can provide critical understanding about human rights violations require more space and time than is usually available in the mainstream media. The paper will study the importance of remembering the violations, analyzing theatre as an alternative medium to facilitate this process. This study focuses on the questions of how and how much to remember about atrocities of the past, considering the implications that remembering might have for the possibilities for reconciliation and coexistence. In this study I will investigate the theatre company Grupo Cultural Yuyachkani from Peru. I will investigate the different approaches that this company has utilized (1) to reach their audiences, (2) to denounce crimes committed in their communities and (3) to mediate the tension between remembering atrocities of the past and moving into the future. The example to be analyzed is part of Acting Together on the World Stage: Performance and the Creative Transformation of Conflicts, an anthology about theatre and peacebuilding that is currently in progress. The anthology describes thirteen cases of international theatre artists living in conflict areas.