Part law court, part theatre spectacle, Kate Connolly asks if The Congo Tribunal – which features real victims and politicians trying to find reconciliation for the Congolese war – is the most ambitious political theatre ever staged.
“Silence, s’il vous plait,” the young court usher said, and an immediate hush descended on the room. “All rise, the court is now in session,” he ordered, and the public stood abruptly as the judge and chief investigator swept into the court in black robes.
A man with a clapper board appeared and a voice from stage left said: “Das Kongo tribunal, Session 3. Action!”
The smack of the clapper board reminded the audience that they were not, in fact, in a court room, but on a set. The voice was that of Milo Rau, a Swiss director who with his company, the International Institute of Political Murder, has brought the Congo conflict right into the heart of Europe, in one of the most ambitious pieces of political theatre ever staged.
“Silence, s’il vous plait,” the young court usher said, and an immediate hush descended on the room. “All rise, the court is now in session,” he ordered, and the public stood abruptly as the judge and chief investigator swept into the court in black robes.
A man with a clapper board appeared and a voice from stage left said: “Das Kongo tribunal, Session 3. Action!”
The smack of the clapper board reminded the audience that they were not, in fact, in a court room, but on a set. The voice was that of Milo Rau, a Swiss director who with his company, the International Institute of Political Murder, has brought the Congo conflict right into the heart of Europe, in one of the most ambitious pieces of political theatre ever staged.
Held last weekend, Rau has set out to create an “unvarnished portrait” of the war in Congo, which he believes is one of the most extensive economic conflicts in human history, estimated to have claimed anything between five and seven million lives in hundreds of massacres over the past 20 years, all of which have gone unpunished... Keep reading on The Guardian.