Welcome speech to the Theatre Festival - Interview with Susannah Tresilian

Dr Elizabeth Kuti, Senior Lecturer in Theatre Studies at the University of Essex, welcomes the assembled audience to the ‘International Festival of Women Making Theatre to Inspire Change’ at the Mercury Theatre on Saturday 24th June 2017. The Festival was conceived as a day of presentations, interviews, discussions, play-readings and a brand-new performance from Ariadne, a collective of six international women directors who use theatre in sites of conflict. These makers from Palestine, Rwanda, Burundi, Serbia and Sri Lanka are currently developing new theatrical languages in response to some of the most testing political and social conditions, and have gathered at the University of Essex for a residency to make a new piece, Dear Children, Sincerely to be performed that evening. 

Here Elizabeth Kuti details the conference programme, also announcing the premiere reading of her new play Cold Season in Calcutta, an original take on Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale.

Furthermore in this video we have an interview with theatre director and journalist, Susannah Tresilian, who founded the Ariadne network; she discusses with Annecy Lax, Senior Lecturer in Theatre Studies at the University of Essex, the origins of Ariadne, the purpose of the group, and what she hopes the network will achieve in the future. Susannah also talks about her own theatre practice and the supporters and advocates that have helped to establish and nurture Ariadne.

Opening address: Professor Caroline Rooney, University of Kent

Professor Caroline Rooney responded to the theme of artistic endeavour in times of conflict and post conflict by showing and discussing her film White Flags. Based on extensive fieldwork and research in Lebanon, White Flags featured filmed portraits of individual Lebanese citizens from different backgrounds reflecting on their respective trust-building initiatives. White flags are usually taken to be signs of truce or surrender, but here Caroline’s lecture, explores how Lebanese citizens from different professional and religious backgrounds bring a range of alternative conceptual, ethical and artistic meanings to the white flag. The film featured interviews with artists-activists Raouf Rifai and Aurelien Zouki, and explores current issues in Lebanon relating to conflictual post-war memory, ideological and sectarian divisions, socio-economic problems, and peacebuilding initiatives amid the challenges and dangers of ongoing crises.

Caroline Rooney, is Professor of African and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Kent. She works and publishes mainly in the area of postcolonial studies and Arab cultural studies, focusing on liberation struggles and their aftermaths in both sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa and the Middle East. Her research engages with postcolonial theory in relation to diverse philosophical and spiritual traditions, literary and political uses of language, and cross-cultural articulations of gender and sexuality. Her current work is particularly concerned with contemporary Arab writing and popular culture in relation to the Arab uprisings, and explores the resources of arts activism both critically and creatively.

Caroline’s lecture is ended with a discussion on the role of art and artists in cultural and social memory and memorialisation, also including Ruwanthie de Chickera and Susannah Tresilian of Ariadne, and chaired by Annecy Lax, Senior Lecturer in Theatre Studies at the University of Essex.

Dr Katharine Low, RCSSD, in conversation with Hope Azeda

Dr Katharine Low, Lecturer in Community Performance and Applied Theatre at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama interviews Hope Azeda, member of the Ariadne network, director of the Ubumuntu Festival and founder of Mashirika Performing Arts.

Before the interview with Hope, Kat delivers a lecture on her practice and scholarship concerning applied theatre and sexual health, with a complimentary interest in feminist-led research and the role of women in theatre. Since 2003, Kat has researched and developed social theatre practices as ways of beginning discussions around sexual and reproductive health, predominantly in South Africa, with additional work in Tanzania and the UK. Her practice lies in creating participatory-led theatre and creative arts-based practice with local communities to explore and gain greater understandings of the key sexual health concerns facing their communities. Kat has published articles on theatre and health in a number of journals and she co-edited Applied Theatre: Performing Health & Wellbeing (2017) with Dr Veronica Baxter for Methuen Bloomsbury and is currently working on her monograph, Challenging Transformation: Applied theatre and sexual health communication in South Africa for Palgrave MacMillan, which considers another way of approaching sexual health communication while also challenging some key tenets held in applied theatre practice, namely an empowerment, transformation and/or impact narrative.

Dr Emma Cox, RHUL, in conversation with Iman Aoun

Dr Emma Cox, Reader in the Department of Drama, Theatre and Dance at Royal Holloway, University of London, interviews Iman Aoun, member of the Ariadne network, director and founder of Ashtar Theatre, Palestine.

Emma spoke about her own practice and research, as well as her previous meeting with Iman when they discussed Ashtar Theatre and Iman’s collaborations with the UK theatre company, Border Crossings. Emma’s research is concerned with the representation and participation of asylum seekers, refugees and migrants in theatre, film and activism and she is the author of the books Performing Noncitizenship (Anthem 2015) and Theatre & Migration (Palgrave 2014). Other recent work includes a book chapter on 'Economies of Atonement in the European Museum: Repatriation and the Post-Rational', and a forthcoming essay for Theatre Journal, 'Processional Aesthetics and Irregular Transit: Envisioning Refugees in Europe'. She is developing an interdisciplinary, transnational project on cultural and performance histories associated with human remains, which encompasses theatrical performance, exhibition, activism and site-responsive memorialisation, examining psychological, philosophical and political dimensions of grief and the material trajectories of remains across a range of contexts (repatriation, migration, war, diplomacy, art). Emma is a contributing author to The Conversation and as an arts critic (2005-07) she has written numerous review and feature articles on theatre, dance and circus (Courier-Mail), visual art (Courier-Mail) and literature (Sydney Morning Herald).

Professor Jerri Daboo, University of Exeter, British Asian Performance

Professor Jerri Daboo gives a talk about the history, tensions and creativities of British Asian Theatre, with particular focus on female theatre-makers and practitioners, and representations of British Asians in margins and the mainstream of UK Theatre, whilst also reflecting on the premiere of Elizabeth Kuti’s new play Cold Season in Calcutta. The discussion session at the end was rich and impassioned, with many professional artists in the audience wanting to talk about issues of cultural appropriation, roles for Asian women artists, and how we might have a collective responsibility towards generating more spaces for British Asian artists.

Jerri Daboo is Professor of Performance at the University of Exeter, where her research and teaching focus on a range of diverse areas, which explore issues of the body, culture and identity in training and performance. She has trained and taught for many years in martial arts, yoga, Buddhism, Indian dance, movement, physical theatre, body awareness and improvisation, and utilises principles from these in her work with actors and dancers. She worked professionally as a performer and director for fifteen years, before taking up the position of Lecturer in Exeter in 2004. Jerri was awarded a major grant from the AHRC to be the Principal Investigator on a large research project entitled 'The Southall Story', to research and document the cultural history of the diasporic town of Southall, focusing on the development of arts and performance, as well as the relationship to socio-cultural events and political organisations. Jerri's monograph, Ritual, Rapture and Remorse: a study of tarantism and pizzica in Salento (Peter Lang, 2010) has received two awards: a special citation for the de la Torre Bueno prize awarded by the Society of Dance History Scholars in America; and runner-up for the Katherine Briggs Award, 2010.

Dr Clare Finburgh, Goldsmiths University, in conversation with Dijana Milosevic

Dr Clare Finburgh, Reader in Theatre and Performance at Goldsmiths, University of London, interviews Dijana Milosevic, member of the Ariadne network, director and founder of Dah Teater, Serbia. This was a wide-ranging interview that gave Dijana the opportunity to talk about the founding of Dah, whilst also talking about the process of making art under political strictures, before moving on to where Dijana sees her role as theatre-maker in contemporary Serbia.

Clare Finburgh came to Theatre Studies through Modern Languages, having been inspired by playwrights like Marguerite Duras, Jean Genet and Bertolt Brecht. She has been published widely on modern and contemporary European theatre and performance, with her books including Jean Genet (2012), Contemporary French Theatre and Performance (2011), and Jean Genet: Performance and Politics(2006). She has written widely on French and francophone playwrights and directors including Kateb Yacine, Valère Novarina, Noêlle Renaude, François Tanguy and Michel Vinaver. Clare is currently leading an AHRC-funded team of researchers and artists who are investigating the legacy in contemporary performance of the Situationist International, a group of radical artists and activists from the 1950s and 1960s, called Reviewing Spectacle. Other recent research has reflected two of the most pressing political and social issues of the modern world: the ecological crisis, and global conflict.

Closing keynote speech: Professor Ananda Breed, University of Lincoln in conversation with Frederique Lecomte & Hope Azeda

Professor Ananda Breed, University of Lincoln, interviews Frederique Lecomte, member of the Ariadne network and founder of Théâtre & Réconciliation, & Hope Azeda, member of the Ariadne network, director of the Ubumuntu Festival and founder of Mashirika Performing Arts. Here Ananda, Professor of Theatre, in the School of Fine and Performing Arts at the University of Lincoln, details her own research in performance and theatre in post-conflict zones, and areas of fragile peace, drawing on her previous fieldwork, meeting and interviewing both Frederique and Hope in-country about their practice. Ananda talks us through her research on maternal environments, of safe spaces, of empathy, and where all of that intersects with gender, taking a global purview of women working in the arts and creative industries. The conversation between Ananda, Frederique and Hope is a rare opportunity to hear these three prestigious theatre-makers talking about their own conception of their creative and social ‘mission’, the ‘boundaries of practice’ and what might be their next iteration of making.

Professor Ananda Breed is author of Performing the Nation: Genocide, Justice, Reconciliation (Seagull Books, 2014) and co-editor of Performance and Civic Engagement (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017) in addition to several publications that address transitional systems of governance and the arts. She has worked as a consultant for IREX and UNICEF in Kyrgyzstan on issues concerning conflict prevention and conducted applied arts workshops in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Indonesia, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Palestine, Rwanda and Turkey. Breed was founder of the Centre for Performing Arts Development (CPAD) at the University of East London and former research fellow at the International Research Centre Interweaving Performance Cultures at Freie University 2013-2014).

Discussion: Post show discussion of Cold Season in Calcutta with Elizabeth Kuti, Trilby James and Shelley King

The Chair for this post-show Q&A is Dr Mary Mazzilli from the University of Essex and the participants are the director, cast and musician-performers in the play (left to right: Dr Mary Mazzilli, Shelley King, Trilby James, Elizabeth Kuti, Charlie Price, Danyal Dhondy, Ulrika Krishnamurti, Oscar Batterham and Sohini Alam).

Questions of ‘cultural appropriation’ are at the core of the play and are dramatised through the viewing and making of performances in different contexts within the play itself. The issue of whether or not artists should ‘stay in their lane’ dominates the post-show Q and A, but the discussion also ranges over the personal concerns within the play for the writer and artists involved; the process of the making of the play; the musical choices; the rationale for its setting in Calcutta in 1775, and how this first half will be completed in such a way as to echo Shakespeare’s audacious time-jump, and leap into a new country, and the experiences of a new generation.

Discussion: Professor David Cotterrell and Ruwanthie de Chickera present on ‘Empathy and Risk’ 

Professor David Cotterrell, Research Professor of Fine Art at Sheffield Hallam University, and an installation artist working across varied media including video, audio, interactive media, artificial intelligence, device control and hybrid technology. 

At the workshop they presented a lecture on the subject of ‘Empathy and Risk’ arguing that an inflated and false sense of risk allows us to continue to perpetuate both militarism and militaristic thinking to resolve conflict, and to engineer distance in order to generate and sustain the idea of the monstrous other. David and Ruwanthie proposed that this construction of artificial threat benefits particular governmental and commercial super structures, whilst maintaining a besieged group in static victimhood, and ensuring that meaningful empathetic connection is denied to those who might wish to see themselves as engaging in ameliorative intervention.

This line of research and artistic enquiry is influenced by David's experience of conflict representation as a commissioned war artist in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and his subsequent decade of practice which presented a constellation of work that problematises the representation of conflict in the mainstream media and cinema, using his multi-discipline art practice to reveal the ‘truths’ of warfare that are obscured in the tropes of conventional reporting and commercial recreation. David and Ruwanthie have collaborated as artists for the past few years, their commitment to examining the human consequences of distance and discordance, and subtly suggesting possibilities of reconnection

The final section of this discussion, sees Ruwanthie and David pose the question about where the artist is most effective in these situations of immense complexity and impasse, with Ruwanthie noting that her reluctance to draw near to power structures had changed over the past few years in Sri Lanka. She relayed that she felt she had appreciably greater impact in talking directly with state decision-makers and political influencers, and acknowledging that the theatre can sometimes function more as a political echo-chamber, rather than the place of genuine encounter and transformation that theatre artists might wish.