ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the representational complexities of memory in two Indonesian dramatic performances that engage with the state-sanctioned violence of the 1965–66 anti-communist mass killings, Turmoil at the Sacred Grave (2017), devised and produced by Agung Kurniawan and Irfanuddien Ghozali and Silent Song of Genjer Flowers (2015), written and directed by Faiza Mardzuki. Drawing on Marianne Hirsch’s concept of postmemory, the chapter compares the artistic strategies and experiential impact of Silent Song, in which actors are relaying survivors’ testimonies and Turmoil involving real-life survivors as performers and audience members as participants. Both plays recall the gendered violence of 1965–66 in ways that celebrate the strength of the survivors and importantly, memorialise their legacy for future generations. By focusing our analysis on the family trope as a critical site for intergenerational transmission of trauma, our discussion of the plays contributes to the broader discourse on gender, power and the aftermath of violence in post-New Order Indonesia.
