Theatrical Responses to Conflict in Northern Ireland
David Grant,
Queen’s University, Belfast
1971-1994
‘
The
Troubles’
“Somewhere
between ‘a wee
bit of bother’ and
Civil War”
Playwright Damian Gorman
“When are we
ever going to get
a Peace Product?”
Playwright Dave Duggan
1994-2015 ...
‘The Peace Process’
How the mainstream theatres addressed the
violence from 1971-1998
How the initiative has shifted to community-
based practice as the Peace Process has
progressed
“The Theatre of Witness” as a case study
First produced in1998, the year of the Good
Friday Agreement, a key moment in the
Peace Process
An adult memory of a childhood friendship
between two young boys in 1970, just
before the start of the Northern Ireland
Troubles
The adult actors play themselves as children
symbolising the connection between the two
years
First produced in1998, the year of the Good
Friday Agreement, a key moment in the
Peace Process
An adult memory of a childhood friendship
between two young boys in 1970, just
before the start of the Northern Ireland
Troubles
The adult actors play themselves as children
symbolising the connection between the two
years
“The
Flats”
(1971)
“We Do It for Love” (1975)
‘Tea in a
China Cup’
by
Christina Reid
‘Dockers’
by
Martin Lynch
‘The Hidden
Curriculum’
by Graham
Reid
‘Observe the Sons of
Ulster Marching
Towards the Somme’
by Frank
McGuinness (1985)
‘Translations’ by
Brian Friel (1980)
1
9
8
0
s
1
9
8
4
1
9
9
4
Daragh Carville
Damian Gorman
Marie Jones
Martin Lynch
Nicola McCartney
Owen McCafferty
Gary Mitchell
1
9
9
9
Rooted in the local community
Tends towards the benefit of that community
Actively involves the participation of local people
Reflects local themes and experience
Professional involvement should be aimed at leaving
skills in the community
Community Drama places more emphasis on process
than on product
Grant (1993),
Playing the Wild Card
Ballybeen Community Theatre (Protestant)
Dockward Community Theatre (Catholic)
Real World Theatre Company (Disabilities)
Stone Chair Community Theatre (Catholic)
Tongue΄n Cheek Theatre Company (Catholic)
Shankill Theatre Company (Protestant)
Martin
Lynch
Marie
Jones
“The word
spoken
will never be the word
heard
...The
theatre
, sum of
all
languages, helps make dialogue
possible
. If I do not understand the
word
, I understand the
gesture
; if not
the gesture, the
sound
; if not the sound,
the
silence
; if not the silence the
tone
; if
not the tone, the
movement
... The mind
also
speaks through the
senses
.”
There are many ways of making stage images:
Sometimes they emerge from group
discussions
Sometimes actors allow themselves to be
‘sculpted’ by a single author.
But the approach I want to consider today is
how an image can develop from the
accumulative actions of a number of
collaborators
How is meaning made by both the image-
maker and the image-viewer?
This can be understood as a dialogue, and
as Bakhtin pointed out, dialogue is initiated
by the hearer, or in this case the viewer
Making images through the process of
‘Image Theatre’ is an embodied process
We think through our bodies
As Merleau-Ponty expressed it, ‘the body
converts a certain motor essence into vocal
form’ (107)
‘One could imagine gesture as the origin of
spoken language... A special kind of oral
motility. Speech on this view would be a
sophisticated movement of the body’ (ibid.)
‘Gestures… are both products and active
producers of… brain organisation’ (128)
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0
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2
0
1
0
2
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7
Changing Perspectives
Changing Perspectives
1
9
9
3
2
0
1
2
2
0
1
1
We tend to ‘stand between’ the image
and audiences by translating images
into words. In doing so we impose one
interpretation on the images, thus
dismissing the possibility that the
images may have more than one
meaning.
(Strecker 1997)
A form of performance in which:
“the true stories of those who have been
marginalised, forgotten or hurt by society are
woven into collaborative theatre productions
and are performed by the people themselves
in spoken word, movement, music and visual
imagery”. (TEYA SEPINUCK)
“Once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme”
“Hope for a great sea-change
On the far side of revenge”
To ‘Troubles
Legacy’
We Carried Your Secrets
(2009)
I
Once Knew a Girl…
(2010)
Release
(2012)
The TRC has been heavily criticised in
South Africa for the compromise
made in the name of ‘national unity’
and reconciliation that allowed many
to walk free while conditions they had
perpetrated under apartheid, and that
had reduced so many to poverty and
powerlessness, remained intact.
“[a]n old ewe that somehow till this
year/had given the ram the slip. We thought
her barren… While they [Northern Ireland’s
political factions] slog it out in Belfast, eight
decades/since Easter 1916, exhausted,
tamed by pain [a particularly insightful
phrase]… the lamb won’t come… We strain
together, harder than we dared… and you
find us/peaceful, at a cradling that might
have been a death”
the very foundation of ‘Theatre of
Witness’. We live in a culture where
high value is placed on knowing facts,
achieving, proving ourselves, and
being right. ‘Not knowing’ undercuts
all of that, allowing us to see things
afresh, to come in without an agenda
or judgement.
to enlarge one’s sphere of
understanding in order to contain
these opposites. It means holding
the story in a vastness that’s
bigger than ‘either/or’. It’s when
a multiplicity of meanings can co-
exist that a new paradigm can be
envisaged
a slanging match of binaries, each side
hurling false dichotomies at the other –
insisting that every aspect of [an] unfolding
crisis can be reduced to an either/or choice,
when in fact the truth very often comes
down to both… But the world is not like
that. It is rarely black v white. It usually
requires us to hold two apparently
contradictory thoughts in our head at once
“What you’re trying to do
is get everyone in touch
with their own story.
Not – ‘I could be you’ but
– ‘I am you’.”
Boal, A. (2002). Games for Actors and Non-Actors, 2nd Edition (London: Routledge)
Boal, A (2006). Aesthetics of the Oppressed (Routledge)
Clarke, Gillian (1998). ‘A Difficult Birth, Easter 1998’ in Five Fields, Carcanet Press
Freedland, Jonathan (2014). ‘As the Ukraine debate rages, both sides are getting it
wrong’. The Guardian, Friday 7th March, 2014
David Grant,
Playing the Wild Card
(1993: CRC) http://www.community-
relations.org.uk/services/publications/
Grant, David & Matthew Jennings (2013). ‘Processing the Peace: An Interview with Teya
Sepinuck’ in Contemporary Theatre Review, 23:3, 314-322
Heaney, Seamus (1990).
The Cure at Troy
, London: Faber
Moariarty, Gerri (2004), ‘The Wedding Community Play Project: a cross-community play
project in Northern Ireland’: in: Boon, Richard and Jane Plastow (eds.), Theatre and
Empowerment. Cambridge: CUP
Roe, Pegg and Hodges (1999). ‘Forgiving the Other Side: Social Identity and Ethnic
Memories in Northern Ireland’ in Politics and Performance in Contemporary Northern
Ireland, ed. by John P. Harrington and Elizabeth J. Mitchell, American Conference for
Irish Studies
Sepinuck, Teya (2013).
Theatre of Witness
(London: Jessica Kingsley)
Gallagher, S (2005). How the Body Shapes the Mind (Oxford: Clarendon Press)
It is a great privilege to be able to share with you today some thoughts on how Northern Ireland’s dramatists have responded to the region’s recent history, and in particular how their approach has changed since 1971, the start of what we euphemistically call ‘The Troubles’.
David Grant, Queen's University, Belfast (d.grant@qub.ac.uk)
Community Drama in Northern Ireland
Delve into the journey of how Northern Ireland's mainstream theatres and community-based practices have addressed the violence during the Troubles era and evolved alongside the progressing Peace Process. Witness how plays like "The Flats" and "We Do It for Love" capture the complexities of the time, reflecting on adult memories and childhood friendships. Explore key moments like the Good Friday Agreement and the impactful shift towards community-focused initiatives. Uncover the power of theatre as a tool for reconciliation and storytelling in times of conflict.
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Presentation Transcript
David Grant, Queen s University, Belfast David Grant, Queen s University, Belfast
1971-1994 The Troubles When are we ever going to get a Peace Product? Playwright Dave Duggan Somewhere between a wee bit of bother and Civil War Playwright Damian Gorman 1994-2015 ... The Peace Process
How the mainstream theatres addressed the violence from 1971-1998 How the initiative has shifted to community- based practice as the Peace Process has progressed The Theatre of Witness as a case study
First produced in1998, the year of the Good Friday Agreement, a key moment in the Peace Process An adult memory of a childhood friendship between two young boys in 1970, just before the start of the Northern Ireland Troubles The adult actors play themselves as children symbolising the connection between the two years
First produced in1998, the year of the Good Friday Agreement, a key moment in the Peace Process An adult memory of a childhood friendship between two young boys in 1970, just before the start of the Northern Ireland Troubles The adult actors play themselves as children symbolising the connection between the two years
The Flats (1971)
The Hidden Curriculum by Graham Reid Dockers by Martin Lynch Tea in a China Cup by Christina Reid
Translations by Brian Friel (1980) Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme by Frank McGuinness (1985) 1980s
Daragh Carville Damian Gorman Marie Jones Martin Lynch Nicola McCartney Owen McCafferty Gary Mitchell 1999
Rooted in the local community Tends towards the benefit of that community Actively involves the participation of local people Reflects local themes and experience Professional involvement should be aimed at leaving skills in the community Community Drama places more emphasis on process than on product Grant (1993), Playing the Wild Card
Ballybeen Community Theatre (Protestant) Dockward Community Theatre (Catholic) Real World Theatre Company (Disabilities) Stone Chair Community Theatre (Catholic) Tongue n Cheek Theatre Company (Catholic) Shankill Theatre Company (Protestant)
Martin Lynch Marie Jones
The word spoken heard languages, helps make dialogue possible word the gesture, the sound the silence not the tone, the movement also spoken will never be the word heard...The theatre theatre, sum of all all possible. If I do not understand the word, I understand the gesture sound; if not the sound, silence; if not the silence the tone movement... The mind also speaks through the senses gesture; if not tone; if senses.
There are many ways of making stage images: Sometimes they emerge from group discussions Sometimes actors allow themselves to be sculpted by a single author. But the approach I want to consider today is how an image can develop from the accumulative actions of a number of collaborators
How is meaning made by both the image- maker and the image-viewer? This can be understood as a dialogue, and as Bakhtin pointed out, dialogue is initiated by the hearer, or in this case the viewer Making images through the process of Image Theatre is an embodied process We think through our bodies
As Merleau-Ponty expressed it, the body converts a certain motor essence into vocal form (107) One could imagine gesture as the origin of spoken language... A special kind of oral motility. Speech on this view would be a sophisticated movement of the body (ibid.) Gestures are both products and active producers of brain organisation (128)
Changing 1993 Changing Pers Persp pectives ectives 2012
We tend to stand between the image and audiences by translating images into words. In doing so we impose one interpretation on the images, thus dismissing the possibility that the images may have more than one meaning. (Strecker 1997)
A form of performance in which: the true stories of those who have been marginalised, forgotten or hurt by society are woven into collaborative theatre productions and are performed by the people themselves in spoken word, movement, music and visual imagery . (TEYA SEPINUCK)
Once in a lifetime The longed-for tidal wave Of justice can rise up, And hope and history rhyme Hope for a great sea-change On the far side of revenge
