Voices from Beyond the Dark
WORK OF ARIEL DORFMAN
The play Voices from the Dark, published by Chilean playwright Ariel Dorfman, is a key component of the Speak Truth to Power program.
It is based on the book of the same name, written by Kerry Kennedy, with interviews conducted with human rights activists around the world.
It was first presented at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, in Washington D.C., in September 2000. Since then it has been staged on numerous occasions, both by the best actors of the national and international scene, as well as by college and university students.
Through the Robert F. Kennedy Spain Foundation, it premiered for the first time in Spain in 2016. It was very well received by both the public and the media. It featured great actors of the national scene, and some students from CIS University.
The president of the Foundation in the USA, Kerry Kennedy, and María Díaz de la Cebosa, President of Robert Kennedy Human Rights Spain, joined us at the premiere in Madrid.
The second edition of the play in our country took place in the middle of the world pandemic. The representation in this case took place in online format.
It was an incredible experience, which had some technical difficulties, but great results as an experience for the students who participated in it. In such complicated times as those experienced at that time, it made special sense to capture the struggle for human rights, through its most representative defenders.
The last time "Voices from the Dark" was performed, through the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Spain Foundation, was September 29, 2021.
In this case, the voices of human rights defenders in our country have joined the representation.
Irene Villa, victim of a terrorist attack and an example of overcoming and harmony, Jon Viar, author and film director, and son of a repentant member of ETA, and Father Angel, an example of social commitment and founder of "Messengers for Peace", joined their voices to make a plea against violence.
The event featured, as actors, the students of CIS University, which is closely linked to the Robert F. Kennedy Foundation, as well as the voices of the new defenders incorporated into the script.
The performance was widely covered by the most widely distributed national media, both through digital and written press, as well as by the different television channels.