The Limits of Trauma / The Possibilities of Solidarity : Reflections of the Belarusian Events of 2020 and 2021 in Contemporary Belarusian and Russian Drama
Abstract
The events in Belarus after the presidential elections in August 2020 have shaken the whole world. Protests, repression, violence, confrontation with death, hopelessness replacing enthusiasm in the Belarusian society's desire for change - all this is gradually being formulated in contemporary Belarusian art.
It is a work that still emerges in an atmosphere of fear and in the fear of punishment. Andrei Kureychik protests in the play Offended.
Belarus. was the first to reflect and publish in a worldwide project of staged readings. Verbatim - documentary theatre production Neighbours (Sosedi/ Susedzi) by Moscow's Teatr.doc was the first response to the issue in Russia.
Two authors - Aksana Haiko in her text collage You will always remain a girl and noname67 in her play with the title I will emerge from the forest, straighten my backbone, and it shall become my sword - look at the contemporary trauma of the Belarusians through a female lens. The play of Haiko tells about different aspects of a woman's life in connection with her identities: Woman, Mother, Lover, Victim, Artist, Fury.
The testimonies of women in concentration camps from the 1940s are juxtaposed with the almost identical testimonies of women today from Okrestina and other Belarusian prisons. The text is thus given a strong political-critical emphasis - not only in the context of the democratization process in Belarus, but also in the context of the global #MeToo movement.