Thursday, January 7, 2010

Theater of War project (How Art Confronts War)

How can we bring each of our warriors "all the way home," as Brigadier General Sutton asks in this video? I've blogged a number of times about the effects of war on its soldiers (as well, of course, as the civilians who always bear the worst brunt).

The Theater of War project is engaging the wounds of war through art, staging classical Greek plays (Ajax, etc.) which deal with the intense experience of war and all of its reverberations. There have been a number of recent films dealing with such reverberations, "In the Valley of Elah," "Brothers" and "The Messenger." It's clear we need this work, but we're pushing back against enormous forces institutionalized (the military-industrial-security complex), enculturated, and in us.

How can we talk with each other about what the war is doing to us? How can we bring the war back home without tearing us apart?

No comments: