Truth and Reconciliation

Synopsis

Rwanda to Northern Ireland, Zimbabwe to Bosnia answers are demanded, reconciliation hard to hear and the truth reluctant to be told.

Our Review:

Michael Coveney - 6 September 2011

The Truth and Reconciliation Courts of enquiry into what went wrong between people, and how they lived with the consequences, came out of the apartheid years in South Africa.

debbie tucker green has taken this phenomenon to produce a slow burn workshop play using the language of simmering resentment and bafflement at various times in recent history: in South Africa, Bosnia, Rwanda, Zimbabwe and Northern Ireland.

The witnesses and plaintiffs cross fade into each other in an oval committee room of stiff-backed chairs, a burnt out floor and chalk testimonials to the victims on the seats of the audience.

As each scene comes round, the location is lit up on a board across one end of the theatre. The author directs, which is not necessarily a good idea, and not in this case: a very short play – just 65 minutes long – seems to last for ever.

But I liked the awkwardness of the encounters, the menace of the questioning: Do they know we are c...

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