State-sponsored disappearance plays into the most primal of human fears – to vanish without a trace. The modern era started with Chile’s US-backed coup on September 11 1973
Forensic anthropologist Alexa Hagerty’s work faced her with the brutality of the genocides in Guatemala and in Argentina’s “Dirty War” – and with the bureaucratic violence of state institutions.
These wartime abductions aren’t specific to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Throughout history, they’ve inflicted trauma on society’s most vulnerable – making them a rich subject matter for the stage.