Hate Radio

After touring more than 25 countries, this landmark work makes its U.S. premiere at St. Ann’s in February.

Can words kill?

In April 1994, the Rwandan government orchestrated the massacre of nearly one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus. While the weapons were largely simple—machetes, sticks, a few guns—the most powerful weapon was RTLM, a wildly popular radio station that had been preparing the genocide for months before the killing started.

Inside an intimate, glass-walled studio, a radio broadcast unfolds in real time. Through our headsets, RTLM’s daily soundscape of upbeat music, news, and sports blends seamlessly with chilling calls to murder.

Milo Rau’s Hate Radio is an exposé on how horrific language first becomes normal… and then lethal.