Communicating the experience of war: the "us" vs. "them" dialectic in Eve ensler's "Necessary Targets"

Abstract

During the 1990s, the Ex -Yugoslavia was involved in a series of armed conflicts. The debate was opened about the need for an intervention on the part of the U.s. and the NATO. When the intervention finally carne, the damage to the civil population had already been done: raped women, dead men and children, displaced people. American Playwright Eve Ensler visited a refugee camp in Bosnia in 1993. What she saw and experienced there she put on stage in Necessary Targets, a play where the protagonists un-learn the concepts of "us" and "them" and build a new community based on solidarity and respect.