Relief or reiteration? Performing and transforming pain

This article asks which approaches are the most effective when making ‘performances of pain’ – performances that not only represent pain, but also transform it. I bring together three performances of pain from around the world: Backyard Games, which is based on a rape in Israel; Thetha Ngikhulume, which tells stories from victims and perpetrators of apartheid in South Africa; and Fagaala, which represents the genocide in Rwanda. According to critics and even the artists themselves, each performance fails in its quest to transform pain. Rather than transforming pain, critical interpretations of these works show that they either reinforce or undermine painful events. Through examining performances that are considered to have failed, I wish to highlight the factors that make works successful in their transformation of pain. An analysis of the critical interpretations of these works shows that performances of pain are more likely to foster transformation when they foreground the experiences of victims and show these victims as creating an existence beyond pain. In order for performances to transform pain, this pain must not be overlooked, but rather allowed to evolve into hope and triumph.