Enacting Justice: The Role of Dah Theatre Company in Transitional Justice Processes in Serbia and Beyond

Abstract

For a long time, theatre has served as a platform for promoting human rights. Drawing on a case study of Dah Theatre Company from Belgrade, this chapter analyses the use of performance in the transitional justice processes, which followed the disintegration of Yugoslavia. The chapter argues that in post-conflict and post-transitional Serbia, survivors of wars are often ignored or marginalized by the government in their struggle to restore peace and achieve justice for the past wrongdoings. By creating and enacting narratives of war crimes and collective responsibility, Dah Theatre gives public voice to survivors of mass human rights violations-in particular to women. The theatre and its members employ performance as a strategy for truth-seeking, resistance and intervention, while actively promoting social and symbolic reparation-a process that is much needed but overlooked by the Serbian state.