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**
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Touring schedule:
#1- Wed 25th & Thur 26th Feb, show at Khum Rokarpo Pram, Srok Thboung
Khmum, Kampong Chham Province.
#2- Sat 28th Feb & Sun 1st March, show at Khum Ampove Prey, Srok Kandal
Stoeung, Kandal Province.
#3- Sat 7th & Sun 8th March, show at Khum Basré, Srok Angkor Borei, Takeo
Province.
#4- Tue 10th & Wed 11th March, show at Khum Tean, Srok Kandal Storung,
Kandal Province.
Show time is between 7 & 8 pm, varies due to location and situation.
**
**
**
*Breaking the Silence - a new Cambodian Play*
*
A new work incorporating theater, poetry, music and dance based on memories
recounted during interviews conducted with a wide range of Cambodians who
lived during the Khmer Rouge regime.
Directed by Annemarie Prins (the Netherlands) and featuring artists from the
Secondary School of Fine Arts.
Saturday and Sunday February 21 and 22 at 6:30pm.
Exhibition Hall, opposite the new Parliament Building on Quay Sisowath.
Performed in Khmer with English sur-titles.
Free admission but limited seating. Passes available as of Tuesday February
17 at Amrita Performing Arts (128G9 Sothearos Boulevard) or at the door.
The piece will tour throughout the provinces immediately following the Phnom
Penh premier with further touring planned for November 2009; exact schedule
TBA.
This production has been made possible through generous support from
The Prince Claus Fund
The Royal Embassy of the Netherlands in Bangkok
The Theater Embassy - Amsterdam
Research and interviews were arranged in close collaboration with the
Documentation Center of Cambodia, as will be the outreach programs planned
for the provincial tour.
For further information, please contact 023-220424 or 017-603459.*
*Synopsis *
**
*O, darling, my darling!*
*Now you are dead.*
*You’re shot dead...Buddho!*
*You’ve left me alone*
*in the middle of this island.*
*From today onward*
*I shall have no hope.*
* **From: The Keening of Wives, U Sam Oeur*
This play is about regaining hope.
We will tell you stories.
The real stories of people who survived the Khmer Rouge era.
Stories that continue to evolve.
You’re invited to imagine their future, which could also be your future.
1. A story about divided people: two women and two men in their 50’s.
2. A story about two women who were young, so very young when their
lives were ruined: and now are two adult women in their 40’s.
3. A story about betrayal and guilt: a 76 year old woman, caring for her
51 year old son.
4. A story about a student who dreamed about a better world: a man of 52
meets his mother of 75.
5. A story about a little girl, who wanted to say sorry but could not:
she’s now 38 years old.
6. A story about a girl who stopped talking: then she was a teenager,
now she’s 47.
7. A story about a boy and a girl who were once upon a time dear
friends: they are now nearly 50 years old.
*I won’t mind *
*if you have thoughts *
*to add to mine.*
*I won’t say *
*your words are “good” or “not good”*
*If you have more to add*
*that would be wonderfull.*
*From: Could we ever forget, Ok Kork*
**
*Director’s Note*
In order to make this play, I have tried to understand this country of
wonders and its wonderful people. It has been over four years since I was
invited by Fred Frumberg, executive director of Amrita Perfoming Arts, to
give a workshop for the theater teachers at the Royal University of Fine
Arts. Using text fragments of my beloved writer Samuel Beckett, I introduced
six actors/teachers (four of which perform in this show) to the world of
western contemporary theatre. During these two weeks some of the actresses
started to tell me fragments of their childhood stories. Those were the
seeds of our first new play, *‘3 years, 8 months, 20 days*’: a production
based on the memories of three actresses as young girls during Pol Pots
reign, featuring Morm Sokly, Kov Sotheary and Chhon Sina. The play was
conceived as a small scale indoor performance and has been presented in Phom
Penh and at the 2007 Singapore Arts Festival. It was only at that stage that
I realized that this production, which delved deeply into Cambodia’s recent
history, would reach a very limited Cambodian audience. Having gained more
and more insight into the effects of the genocide and the near extinction of
entire generations of artists and intellectuals, I realized I had to make a
second play. This new production would need to be made to tour throughout
the country and deal not only with history, but also with the question of
how to go on. *Breaking the Silence* is based on many interviews I conducted
during a research trip in January 2008, several meetings with Youk Cchang -
director of DC-Cam, - the viewing of hours of footage and reading every
available book on the topic. The main goal of this production is to find a
way out of trauma’s silence; contributing to open dialogue as part of the
process of reconciliation.
Traveling, talking, reading, viewing and most of all: working with this
amazing team, helped me get closer to knowing the Cambodian soul. And I am
grateful to the beautiful Cambodian poets, especially U Sam Oeur who is very
present in this show. They all helped me to begin to understand.
I hope you will appreciate *Breaking the Silence, *
**
Annemarie Prins
*DCCAM OUTREACH** - BREAKING THE SILENCE** ** **DIRECTED By Annemarie Prins;
** **Produced by AMRITA PERFORM**ING** ARTS*
DOCUMENTATION CENTER OF CAMBODIA
MAGAZINE: Searching for the Truth
**
*“Breaking the Silence” Confronts **Cambodia’s Past Artistically** *
Dacil Q. Keo
PhD Student at University of Wisconsin-Madison
United States of America
Art can be a powerful tool to help victims to cope with seemingly
irreconcilable pain and trauma, especially when other means are
unavailable. In Cambodia where millions experienced four years of brutality
and subhuman conditions under the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975-1979, there
are less than 30 psychiatrists in the country. Victims have lived knowing,
in some cases nearby, their perpetrators for over two decades. Legal
justice, with all its necessary and unnecessary complications, finally
emerged in the form of the Khmer Rouge tribunal only recently. Its mission
is to prosecute less than ten senior leaders, but what mechanisms will
address the thousands of perpetrators who actually committed the atrocities
and the victims who know their faces? Play director Annemarie Prins believes
that art may be part of the answer. She hopes that her play, “Breaking the
Silence,” will help foster an “open dialogue as part of the process of
reconciliation” in Cambodia.
Prins’ entry into such plays began four years ago at the Royal University of
Fine Arts where she lectured at a workshop. She exposed and intrigued the
participants there to western contemporary theatre. During the course of
the two week workshop, several participants opened up to Prins about what
they had suffered during the genocide. These stories became the basis for
Prins’ first play called, “3 Years, 8 Months, and 20 Days,” a title
referring to the exact number of days in which the Khmer Rouge regime was in
power. Her second play, produced by Amrita Performing Arts, expands upon
the themes and issues addressed in the first, incorporating its survival
stories with the added complexities of present-day coping measures.
“Breaking the Silence” is a play of seven stories of troubled relationships
between survivors- both victims and perpetrators, of the Khmer Rouge regime.
It is a humble yet compelling endeavor created to break the silence
surrounding Cambodia’s traumatic past, hence the play’s name. The stories
are acted by four female teachers from the Secondary School of Fine Arts who
will play both male and female roles. The issues addressed are raw and
sincere, supported with heartbreaking song, poetry, and dance.
In one story, a former Khmer Rouge cadre grapples with guilt and seeks
forgiveness from his mother, whom he meets on Saturdays at the market but
does not talk to. When they finally exchange words, the mother responds,
“It will never be the same, it will never be the same, my son.” Another
story involves two former child soldiers who cope differently with their
past. One is full of remorse and travels to a prison site where killing and
torture took place, to ask for forgiveness. The other, still defending his
actions during the day, succumbs to nightmares when he sleeps. A third story
centers around a man who came close to avenging the death of his father and
at present is caught between Buddhist teachings of karma and personal
anguish. The other four stories illustrate similar conflicting emotions
between survivors and within survivors; individual coping measures vary
among the individuals. All stories share the theme of silence, in the form
of denial, empty communication, or the inability to speak. This theme of
silence is ubiquitous and loud, and certain to reflect the sentiments and
thoughts of the audience.
Prins’ “Breaking the Silence” hopes to reach a wider audience than her first
play and there are plans for a nationwide tour. With support from the Royal
Embassy of the Netherlands and several organizations, including the
Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) which provided research and will
bring the production to various provinces as part of its outreach
activities, this play has the potential make a significant contribution to
Cambodia’s healing process. When silence dominates survivors and the legal
system is unreliable, plays such as Prins’ may hold one of the keys to
unlocking Cambodia’s traumatized national psyche and in the process,
gradually heal it. Localized mechanisms of dealing with trauma must
resonate with the locals, in that regard plays may become an instrumental
tool in Cambodia. DC-Cam Director Youk Chhang believes that Prins’ play
will “communicate well with the hearts of the villagers” and that such plays
are necessary because they help us “to recognize the beauty in the darkness
and treasure it.” While some might not agree that there is always beauty in
darkness, all can agree that darkness is a part of many of our lives and
that beauty can exist in the ways in which honest reflections of darkness
are artistically expressed. As the country struggles to overcome its
darkness, plays such as Prins’ offers renewed hope in the resilience and
strength of Cambodians.
“Breaking the Silence,” which has free admission and English sur-titles,
will be performed in Phnom Penh on Feb 21-22 at 6:30pm at the Exhibition
Hall. Other scheduled locations include Kampong Cham province, Ampove Prey
commune and Tean commune in Kandal province and Angkor Borei commune (in
Prey Kabas District) in Takeo province. For more information, please
contact Amrita Performing Arts at 023-220-424 or 017-603-459 and
012-974-271. You can also contact DC-Cam’s Sayana Ser at 092-763-272 for
more information about performance times and locations.
--
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Mr. Perom Uch
www.caraweb.org/about.html
http://www.thinkmassmedia.com/PUINT01.html
http://www.kdigitalsolutions.com/index.php/bod
http://www.linkedin.com/in/peromuch
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