NINE TENTHS UNDERPerforming the Peace
ICAN - International Culture Arts Network in partnership with School of Creative Arts
at Queen’s University, Belfast
Dates:
Venue:
Cost:
Hotel:
Thursday 22nd – Saturday 24th March 2012
The Brian Friel Theatre, 20 University Square, Belfast
Free
Malone Lodge, Eglantine Avenue, Belfast
As Belfast prepares to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic,
the iceberg (the great ship’s nemesis) provides an apt symbol for Northern Ireland’s continuing
peace process. Above the surface is the public face of the peace, but what of the great mass of
untold and often problematic stories hidden beneath the official version?
For ‘Nine Tenths Under’, The Playhouse ICAN International Culture Arts Network DerryLondonderry and the School of Creative Arts at Queens University, Belfast will bring together
creative artists, academics, students and a range of different communities across the city to
explore how the arts can cast light on the hidden face of the peace, not just in Northern Ireland
but other societies emerging from a history of conflict, including South Africa and the Balkans.
Events will include specially devised performances, talks, seminars and round-table discussions.
All events will be free and all are welcome to attend, especially community leaders and
members, ex-combatants, students and artists of all kinds.
To attend contact [email protected] or alternatively www.icanplayhouse.com.
Registration is essential.
NINE TENTHS UNDERPerforming the Peace
ICAN - International Culture Arts Network in partnership with School of Creative Arts
at Queen’s University, Belfast
DRAFT Schedule
Conference Launch
7.15 – 7.20
Thursday 22nd March 2012 from 7pm – 9pm
Welcome David Grant, University of Ulster and Elaine Forde, The
Playhouse ICAN project
7.20 – 7.45
Opening address by Idan Meir, Combatants for Peace, Israel/Palestine
discussing Theatre and Peace Building in an International Context
7.45 – 7.50
Introduction to The Far Side of Revenge by TeyaSepinuck, Director of
Theatre of Witness, Playhouse Derry - Londonderry
7.50 – 9.00
The Far Side of Revenge, A Besom Production - produced and
directed by Margo Harkin
9.00 – 9.30
Reflection and comments with Margo Harkin & Teya Sepinuck
Drinks and Light refreshments will be served.
NINE TENTHS UNDER Performing the Peace
ICAN - International Culture Arts Network in partnership with School of Creative Arts
at Queen’s University, Belfast
Friday 23rd March 2012
9.00 – 10.00 Registration and morning refreshments
10.00 – 10.10 Welcome- David Grant, University of Ulster
10.00 – 1.00 Session 1 – Showcase and discussion of the Red Shoes Project facilitated
by Ales and Belma Kurt from Aparat Theatre Sarajevo, Anna Newell of
Replay Belfast and Michelle Young from the Belfast/Sarajevo Initiative.
Belfast/Sarajevo Initiative Outline
This series of workshops in collaboration between Replay Theatre, Belfast
and Aparat Teater, Sarajevo, will be based on explorations of a play called
Red Red Shoes by Charles Way. Participants will explore of how the legacy
of the past has been inherited and is processed by the next generation.
(Break 11.15-11.30)
1.00 - 2.00
Lunch
2.00 – 4.30
Session 2: A showcase and discussion of the project entitled ‘Who’s voice
is it, anyway?’ Facilitators include Professor Jane Taylor from the
University of Witwatersrand, Aja Marneweck from the University of
Capetown, David Grant from Queen’s University & Belfast dramatist,
Owen McCafferty.
Who’s Voice is it Anyway? Outline
This session explores the ethics of communal story-telling. In what ways
can and should we share our stories?
7.30 – 8.30
Evening Event- Threads of Resilience
An ICAN Production facilitated and directed by Ailbhe Hines in
collaboration with the WISE Owl Woman's Initiative for Self
Empowerment Group Omagh. WISE Owl have been exploring the threads
of a community and the patterns and cycles which are seen and unseen.
The women come from diverse and mixed sections of the community and
have attempted to create a dynamic archive of personal and community
experience as a valid peace building and empowerment tool.
Drinks and light refreshments will be served.
NINE TENTHS UNDER Performing the Peace
ICAN - International Culture Arts Network in partnership with School of Creative Arts
at Queen’s University, Belfast
Saturday 24th March 2012
10.00 – 10.10 Welcome David Grant, University of Ulster
10.00 – 12.30 Session 1: AH 6905 by Dave Duggan: a case study in performing the
peace in Ireland and Afghanistan. With Dave Duggan, writer/director and
Hjalmar Joffre-Eichhorn, theatre-maker/producer. Both practitioners will
explore the play AH 6905 by Dave Duggan and the response in both
Ireland and Afghanistan to two differing adaptations and productions.
(Break 11.15-11.30)
12.30 – 1.30 Lunch
1.30 – 3.30
Session 2: "Problematic Stories: Documenting Conflict during a Peace
Process" chaired by Declan Keeney, Queen’s University, Belfast and Dr
Cahal McLaughlin The Prisons Memory Archive.
This symposium will focus on the issues of recording memories from the
Northern Irish conflict in the context of a peace process. Core issues
around story telling will be address by a number of practitioners and
academics.
Speakers will include among others journalist Ed Moloney who will talk
about 'The Belfast Project' a controversial archive of multiple testimonies
from former combatants involved in The Troubles. Dr Cahal McLaughlin
will speak about The Prisons Memory Archive and Clarie Hackett will
speak about Healing Through Remembering project. An archive of 175
filmed interviews of people connected to the Maze & Long Kesh Prisons.
3.30 – 4.00
Conclusion facilitated by David Grant
NINE TENTHS UNDER Performing the Peace
The Far Side of Revenge
A Besom Production - produced and directed by Margo Harkin
Teya Sepinuck’s Theatre of Witness puts marginalised people at the core of a new type
of performance in which they relate their own, often shocking, stories to the public. This
film documents her engagement in 2010/11 with a group of Northern Irish women from
backgrounds and histories so diverse that it would be impossible to imagine them
sharing a space together, let alone creating a public, cultural event.
Kathleen, whose husband, along with five British soldiers, was blown up by the IRA in
1990, now performs on stage with Anne, a former quartermaster in the IRA, whose
uncle was killed by the British Army on Bloody Sunday in 1972. Under Teya's guidance
six cast members allow themselves to reveal the deep emotions that can be explored
only now in post-conflict Northern Ireland.