Performance In Place of War

This is going to be one of the pointing out interesting things blogs today, rather than any real analysis.

Today, as part of the Beacon For Wales project (www.engagingwales.org, itself part of a larger plan for increasing academic public engagement, www.publicengagement.ac.uk), Professor James Thompson from the University of Manchester came to Cardiff University to talk about his work on the role of theatre In Place of War.

The project has been going on for over 10 years now, working with theatre artists living and working in warzones. Prof Thompson's idea of public engagement is a novel one, and one that really ought to be adopted by more academics. Instead of researching, thinking and then imparting wisdom in the traditional academic way, Thomson sees public engagement at the very heart of his work. Over the years, Thompson and his team have studied the importance of theatre in the very places where it is all too easy to assume that theatre would not exist, countries like Kosovo, Sri Lanka and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Two central questions fuel this research:
     - Why is there theatre in the war zone?
     - Why do academics assume there isn't?
Over the years, Thompson and his team have tried to answer these questions by following and documenting the work of over 300 theatre companies in almost every major warzone. You can find details of most of these on the In Place of War website www.inplaceofwar.net - it's well worth spending some time on this site as the wealth of different programmes and what they achieve is fascinating. The project has also lead to a book:

However, it's not all about documenting and analysing the performances and theatre groups, but rather facilitating them and fostering communication between the disparate groups. Thomson reports that what the groups he works with find most useful is always the chance to interact with groups from other warzones around the world, to compare experiences and share good practice. Unsurprisingly, artists and performers in warzones can feel very isolated.

What was most interesting to me was the distinction between functional and diversionary theatre. That is, academics are traditionally interested in theatre that serves some purposes, facilitating public debates about contentious issues, educating or working through trauma. However, at the heart of the conflict, and especially when working with children, what is really necessary is theatre which distracts from the violence, allowing victims to relax and enjoy themselves. Rather than creating a false serious/escapist dialectic, Thompson insists that popular, escapist work should be valued and recognised as a valid response to the moment.

Professor Thompson's talk will soon be uploaded to the Beacon for Wales site. I recommend you watch it and explore the In Place of War website.