“Breaking the Silence”, Play to Tour Cambodia

[CEOCambodiaNews]

The Play “Breaking the Silence” to Tour Cambodia
16/01/19 08:21
Carrying a Message of Reconciliation

Ten years ago, a play was staged in Cambodia, giving voice to ordinary people who had lived through the Khmer Rouge regime. Not only to those who had survived forced labor and starvation during that era, but also to those who had joined the Khmer Rouge ranks.

The stories told by the actors in “Breaking the Silence” were based on true accounts that people had shared with researchers of the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam).

At the time, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) had just started its work and it would be years before Khmer Rouge leaders were convicted—Kaing Guek Eav alias Duch in 2010, and Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan in 2014.

This year, “Breaking the Silence” is being staged again in Cambodia as a DC-Cam project with an additional scene to take the last decade into account. It was presented in Phnom Penh on Jan. 11 and is to be performed in four provinces in the coming months.

Former victims and perpetrators living side by side

The play tells of the pain of those who were under the yoke of the Khmer Rouge during the regime that begun in April 1975 and ended in January 1979. A pain that putting on trial a few Khmer Rouge leaders has not alleviated.

The actors also address the difficulty some people face as they find themselves living side by side with those who had joined the regime that claimed the lives of more than 2 million people between April 1975 and January 1979. They also speak of the guilt that torments some of those former Khmer Rouge while others deny having committed any crime.
In the first scene, one character refuses to admit guilt. “We were ordered by senior leaders,” the character says.

In the following scene, however, a former Khmer Rouge nurse says how she has been haunted by regret for not being able to help patients and actually causing their death. “I know I should forgive,” actress Chhon Sina tells her. “But you killed my father and yelled at my mother.”

Today’s youth given a voice in the play

The eight scene added in this year’s version of the play features a young Cambodian representing Cambodians in their 20s or early 30s who have only known Cambodia in peace time. “Why all the fear? Fear of what and for whom? Why the endless guilt? Why the silencing,” actor Nen Phearith asks. “I respect you and your past, but I don’t want to drown in your sad memories.”

He then explains that, when he was a child, his father forbade him to play with the son of a neighbor who was a former Khmer Rouge. “He was trapped in his pain,” he says of his father, adding that he did disobey his orders and that the neighbor’s son still is one of his best friends.

“Endless hate makes a victim of the hater and very often of his whole family,” actress Pok Sovanna says in the scene. The play ends with Yin Vutha singing: “May all beings live in happiness and peace.”
http://en.freshnewsasia.com/index.php/e ... 02-34.html