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The Theatre of Genocide
Four Plays about Mass Murder in Rwanda, Bosnia, Cambodia, and Armenia
Edited and with an introduction by Robert Skloot


A powerful, provocative collection

In this pioneering volume, Robert Skloot brings together four plays–three of which are published here for the first time–that fearlessly explore the face of modern genocide. The scripts deal with the destruction of four targeted populations: Armenians in Lorne Shirinian's Exile in the Cradle, Cambodians in Catherine Filloux's Silence of God, Bosnian Muslims in Kitty Felde's A Patch of Earth, and Rwandan Tutsis in Erik Ehn's Maria Kizito. Taken together, these four plays erase the boundaries of theatrical realism to present stories that probe the actions of the perpetrators and the suffering of their victims. A major artistic contribution to the study of the history and effects of genocide, this collection carries on the important journey toward understanding the terror and trauma to which the modern world has so often been witness.

"With the world in a blaze of war, The Theatre of Genocide is all too timely. The compelling, evocative plays Robert Skloot has chosen move from the Armenian genocide, which preceded the Holocaust, to the more recent horrors of Cambodia, Bosnia, and Rwanda. Readers, educators, and theatre practitioners alike should find inspiration in this volume, which serves as a warning against moral complacency and a call to meaningful action."—Barbara W. Grossman, Tufts University, former presidential appointee to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council

"Wisely chosen and thoughtfully introduced, Robert Skloot's collection of genocide-related drama brings its significant light and insight to bear on some of the darkest times in recent history. Teaching and warning those who enter, The Theatre of Genocide stages, invites, and encourages action that resists atrocity."—John K. Roth, director of the Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights at Claremont McKenna College

A photo of Robert Skloot.Robert Skloot is professor in the Department of Theater and Drama and in the Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is the author of the play If the Whole Body Dies: Raphael Lemkin and the Treaty Against Genocide. He is also the author of The Darkness We Carry: The Drama of the Holocaust and editor of The Theatre of the Holocaust, Volume 1 and Volume 2, both published by the University of Wisconsin Press.

Photo © UW-Madison University Communications

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Of Related Interest
The Art of Truth-Telling about Authoritarian Rule
Edited by Ksenija Bilbija, Jo Ellen Fair, Cynthia E. Milton, and Leigh A. Payne

A yellow-green image of skeletons signal the serious nature of Skloot's book.

January 2008

LC: 2007016820 PS
232 pp.  6 x 9   5 b/w illus.

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Paper $29.95 s
ISBN 978-0-299-22474-5
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