Silent Voices
By Adong Judith
Themes: Political and Religious Fanaticism, Gender, Race, Religious Identity
Genre: Political Theatre / Documentary Drama
Key scenes: pp. 149-151 (1F, 1M); pp. 203-209 (2F, 5M) ; pp. 137-142 (3F, 5M)
Number of characters: 30+
Age recommendation: 16+ (strong language, weapons and scenes of explicit violence)
Country: Uganda
Original language: English
Description:
Set in a town after the Northern Ugandan War, a mother, who has been jailed for her part in the death of several children, remembers what happened to her community. Imagination interrupts the memories as she contends with the experience for the children of the town. The play rapidly switches location from prison to bush to rehabilitation centre to court room. Small scenarios are split into micro-scenes that can be reordered and repeated for emphasis. The fast-paced cross-cutting between Mother’s memory and imagination reflects her frenzied desire to perform her ancestral ritual in the presence of the judge and lawyer.
Silent Voices explores how victims have been ignored by the constant calls for forgiveness and reconciliation by Amnesty International, transitional justice projects, governments, NGOs and political leaders. Through the protagonist, Mother, who is a symbolic representation of life and death, Silent Voices examines what ordinary citizens can be driven to do by unhealthy policies.
Read the full synopsis in the Education Pack below.
+ DETAILS
Author: Adong Judith
Original language: English
Publisher: Bloomsbury, 2019
World Premiere (in the Engl. lang.): National Theatre of Uganda, 2012
Education Pack Resource Writer: Almiro Andrade
+ CHARACTERS
Adult cast MOTHER, a former slave wife to a rebel commander now in her fifties. She is the mother of Omony.
GUARD 1 / MAN, Mother’s security guard in prison, who in Mother’s unstable mental state becomes Man, the rebel leader.
GUARD 2 / BOSS, Mother’s security guard in prison, who in Mother’s unstable mental state becomes Boss, the President.
CID / MEDIATOR / LC5 / JUDGE, a pompous crime investigator, who in Mother’s unstable mental state becomes the peace talks Mediator, Local Council 5 and Judge.
JUMA / JOURNALIST / MP / COURT CLERK, a police officer who works closely with the CID , who in Mother’s unstable mental state becomes a News Anchor, Journalist, Member of Parliament and Court Clerk.
HUSBAND, a young man in his early thirties, son of a former rebel leader.
See the full 30 characters in the Education Pack here
+ PLAY TEXT BLURB
Part of Contemporary Plays by African Women (2019)
Silent Voices by Adong Judith (Uganda) is a one-act play based on interviews with people involved in the LRA and the effects of the civil war in Uganda. It critiques this, and by implication, other truth commissions.
Buy the play text here
