1. art and entertainment
2. theatre

THE
THEATRE
WAR
SYMPOSIUM
OF
22 – 24 January 2015
schedule
www.abbeytheatre.ie (01) 87 87 222
THURSDAY 22 JANUARY 2015
THURSDAY 22 JANUARY 2015
TIME
EVENT
LOCATION
10.00 –13.00
registration
Abbey Foyer
13.00 –13.15
Welcome from Fiach Mac Conghail
Abbey Auditorium
13.15 –14.00
TALK: SPEECH: RECASTING THE RISING
1916 ON THE WORLD STAGE
Prof. Luke Gibbons: Professor of Irish Literary and Cultural Studies,
Maynooth University.
This talk will recast the Easter Rising from a Romantic to a Modernist
idiom, proposing that this international turn transformed 1916 and the
Irish Revolution into world historical events.
Abbey Auditorium
TIME
16.40 – 17.30
18.00 – 20.00
PANEL: THE THEATRE OF CONFLICT PART 1
ARTISTIC RESPONSE TO CONFLICT AND WAR
Theatre director Conall Morrison reflects on his journey with Sophocles’
ANTIGONE, from Ramallah to Stormont, and explores how classical drama
can help order our understanding of the intensities of modern conflict.
Eisenhower Fellow and leading playwright Ruwanthie de Chickera will
speak about Stages Theatre Group of Sri Lanka, a company she cofounded in 2001. The company is committed to producing socially and
politically conscious, original Sri Lankan Theatre. She will discuss the
challenges and triumphs of devising theatre in a post-war situation.
Susannah Tresilian will talk about Project Ariadne. Named after the
woman who gave the thread that led out of the maze, Ariadne looks at
the relationship between war, women and the arts. Why is it important to
put the spotlight on the women making theatre in conflict zones around
the world?
Conall Morrison: Theatre Director
Ruwanthie de Chickera: Playwright, Screenwriter, Theatre Director.
Susannah Tresilian: Theatre Director and Artistic Director of Project Ariadne
Abbey Auditorium
coffee break
15.50 –16.40
TALK: SUBJECTIVE DOCUMENTARY
A WAR ARTIST’S ENGAGEMENT WITH FALSE NARRATIVES AND
ILLUSIONS OF TRUTH
Prof. David Cotterrell: An installation artist working across media and
technologies to explore the social and political tendencies of a world at
once shared and divided.
moderated by sarah glennie (director of irish museum of modern art)
Abbey Auditorium
& broadcaster)
RETURNING TO HAIFA (Rehearsed Reading)
Adapted by Naomi Wallace and Ismail Karim Khalidi from the novella
by Ghassan Kanafani, Returning to Haifa is a haunting tale of the
repercussions and residues of dispossession and loss in Palestine/Israel.
DISCUSSION AFTERWARDS
see page 8 for more details
Peacock Stage
not included in symposium ticket prices
21.00 – 22.20
OH MY SWEET LAND (Performance)
see page 7 for more details
not included in symposium ticket prices
moderated by ruth mcgowan (literary assistant of the abbey theatre)
15.30 –15.50
LOCATION
TALK: THE RISE OF THE ISLAMIC STATE
Patrick Cockburn: An Irish journalist who has been a Middle Eastern
correspondent since 1979 for The Financial Times and, presently, The
Independent.
Patrick will talk about how an organisation that is a mixture of religious
fanaticism and military expertise created a new state in the Middle East
in the space of a year and asks the question. What are the chances of
this state surviving?
moderated by olivia o’leary (freelance political writer
moderated by fiach mac conghail ( director of the abbey theatre )
14.00 –15.30
EVENT
Yeats Lounge
Abbey Auditorium
Peacock Stage
FRIDAY 23 JANUARY 2015
TIME
FRIDAY 23
22 JANUARY 2015
EVENT
09.00 – 10.00
coffee and scones
10.00 – 11.30
PANEL: THE THEATRE OF CONFLICT PART 2
ARTISTIC RESPONSE TO CONFLICT AND WAR
John Scott will speak about his artistic breakthrough through making
dances with survivors of torture.
Dijana Milošević, co-founder of DAH theatre in Belgrade, will talk
about her work with the theatre.
Hope Azeda, one of the leading figures in contemporary Rwandan
theatre will speak about Mashirika Creative and Performing Arts, a
leading theatre company in Rwanda. Hope will talk about her work with
Mashirika with reference to the productions of Africa’s Hope,
Bridge of Roses and Shadows of Memory.
Naomi Wallace and Ismail Karim Khalidi will read from her play One
Short Sleepe.
John Scott: Choreographer, performer
Dijana Milošević: Theatremaker, Co-founder DAH Theatre in Belgrade
Hope Azeda: Writer and Director
Naomi Wallace: Playwright
Ismail Karim Khalidi: Playwright
LOCATION
TIME
Yeats Lounge
14.30 – 16.00
Abbey Auditorium
TALK: THE FRAGMENTATION OF PALESTINE
A UNITED NATIONS VIEW FROM THE WEST BANK
Ray Dolphin: Researcher and Writer currently based in East
Jerusalem, working with the UN office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA).
The presentation will show how a combination of Israeli physical
obstacles and bureaucratic constraints are undermining Palestinian
access to services, livelihoods and resources and the territorial integrity
essential for a Palestinian state
16.00 – 16.30
coffee break
12.15 – 13.15
TALK: NATIONALISM AND THE POLITICS OF SPIRITUALITY IN
INDIA AND IRELAND
Prof. Gauri Viswanathan: Class of 1933 Professor in the Humanities at
Columbia University
Abbey Auditorium
13.15 – 14.30
break
TALK: ‘WHAT’S THE STORY WITH THE IRISH CIVIL WAR?’
Dr. Anne Dolan: Lecturer in modern Irish history TCD will speak about
the nature and legacy of the Irish civil war. The consequence of violence
at a political and at a personal level and in placing the Irish experience
in a wider context.
Abbey Auditorium
16.30 – 16.45
coffee break
16.45 – 17.30
WAR CORRESPONDENTS (Performance)
HELEN CHADWICK SONG THEATRE
War Correspondents is a collaboration between composer Helen Chadwick, Olivier Award winning choreographer Steven Hoggett and creative
associate Miriam Nabarro. The company will perform extracts from the
songs, followed by a question and answer with composer/creator Chadwick, and the five actor-singers.
see page 7 for more details
Abbey Auditorium
Yeats Lounge
18.00 – 20.00
SHIBBOLETH (Rehearsed reading)
BY STACEY GREGG
A co-commission between the Abbey Theatre and the Goethe Institut,
Dublin, Shibboleth is at once a symbolic homage to the common man
and a sensitive exploration of working-class Belfast life.
see page 8 for more information
Peacock Stage
Abbey Auditorium
Yeats Lounge
not included in symposium tickets prices
moderated by prof. declan kiberd
(keough naughton professor of irish studies at university of notre dame)
Abbey Auditorium
moderated by fiach mac conghail ( director of the abbey theatre )
moderated by fiach mac conghail ( director of the abbey theatre )
12.00 – 12.15
PANEL: BARRIERS
RESPONSES AND REACTIONS TO WALLS,
BARRIERS AND BOUNDARIES
Dr. Brendan Ciarán Browne will speak about the ‘peace’ walls in
Belfast and also the challenge of commemorating the Easter Rising in
that City. Stacey Gregg, Belfast playwright, will speak about her play
about Belfast called Shibboleth.
Leading emerging Palestinian theatre director and writer Amir Nizar
Zuabi will talk about his work with ShiberHur theatre company on
political/poetical theatre and the effort not being reduced.
Dr. Brendan Ciarán Browne: Assistant Professor of Transitional Justice
at Al Quds (Bard) University, Jerusalem
Stacey Gregg: Playwright
Amir Nizar Zuabi: Playwright and Director
LOCATION
moderated by shona mccarthy (director of shona mccarthy consulting)
moderated by aideen howard (literary director of the abbey theatre)
11.30 – 12.00
EVENT
21.00 – 22.20
OH MY SWEET LAND (Performance)
see page 7 for more information
not included in symposium tickets prices
Peacock Stage
24 JANUARY 2015
SATURDAY 22
TIME
EVENT
9.00 – 10.00
coffee and scones
10.00 – 11.30
PANEL: THE THEATRE OF CONFLICT PART 3
ARTISTIC RESPONSE TO CONFLICT AND WAR
This is a simultaneously translated panel in which we hear from
Frédérique LeComte, who is the founder and main facilitator of the
Theatre and Reconciliation method speaking about her work.
Vladimir Shcherban, director and co-creator of Belarus Free Theatre
will speak about his work with the company.
Iman Aoun who is artistic director of Ashtar Theatre in Ramallah and
a major Palestinian actress will speak about her work in the West
Bank and Gaza.
Frédérique LeComte: Sociologist, Writer and Stage Director
Vladimir Shcherban: Theatre Director (translated by Sasha Padziarei)
Iman Aoun: Artistic director of Ashtar Theatre
LOCATION
Yeats Lounge
Abbey Auditorium
11.30 – 11.50
of drama
&
TALK: ART, BEAUTY, WAR
A LOOK AT HECUBA, CLYTEMNESTRA AND ANTIGONE
AS DIFFERENT MANIFESTATIONS OF WOMEN IN WAR
THROUGH THE LENS OF ART AND BEAUTY.
Marina Carr: Playwright, English lecturer at Dublin City University/ St
Patrick’s College Drumcondra
This urgent and extraordinary play exploring the crisis in Syria through the stories of its two million refugees is
brought to Ireland for the first time by London’s award-winning theatre, the Young Vic, in a co-production with
Théâtre de Vidy-Lausanne.
Abbey Auditorium
OH MY SWEET LAND (Performance)
see page 7 for more information
not included in symposium ticket prices
P E A C O C K S TA G E
D A T E S : Tu e s d a y 2 0 – S a t u r d a y 2 4 J a n u a r y, 9 p m
T I C K E T S : €18 – €2 5 / C o n c . €13 – €18
Abbey Auditorium
helen chadwick song theatre
(extracts)
WAR CORRESPONDENTS
‘I keep hoping that some day, if we keep telling the truth, it will be better for all of us’ Kenneth Best,
Liberian Journalist
War Correspondents is inspired by recent interviews with journalists covering conflicts from Bosnia, Iraq,
Chechnya and Liberia. Interviewees discuss the guilt of filming people when they are at their most vulnerable,
censorship, the increased dangers of working in the field since 9/11 and the personal cost to those reporting.
moderated by fiach mac conghail ( director of the abbey theatre )
21.00 – 22.20
CONCEIVED BY CORINNE JABER
They came from Damascus, from Halab, from Banias where the bombs fall day and night and the wounded
children look like sleeping angels. Now they live in camps and abandoned buildings in Lebanon or Jordan. Now
Syria is just a distant memory, a home forever lost.
moderated by aideen howard (literary director of the abbey theatre)
11.50 – 12.30
OH MY SWEET LAND
‘They call it a civil war, but there is nothing civil in this. Nothing civil at all.’
theatre studies at nui galway )
TALK: ‘HOW WAS THE COMMEMORATION OF THE LOCKOUT
FOR YOU?’
Pádraig Yeates: Journalist, publicist and trade union activist recounts his
first- hand experience of organising a major national commemoration
young vic / théâtre de vidy-lausanne co-production
written and directed by amir nizar zuabi
moderated by prof . patrick lonergan
(prof.
PERFORMANCES
Peacock Stage
Sections of these interviews have been transformed into song.
War Correspondents is a collaboration between composer Helen Chadwick, Olivier award winning
choreographer Steven Hoggett and creative associate Miriam Nabarro. As part of the symposium, the company
will perform extracts from the songs, followed by a question and answer with composer/creator Chadwick and
the five performers, Helen Chadwick, James Lailey, Michael Mears, Oliver Senton, Rebecca Thorn.
Lyrics by Chadwick from interviews with journalists. For the interviews, we are deeply grateful to the
following journalists: Shakh Aivazov, Margarita Akhvlediani, Goga Aptsiauri, Martin Bell, Ramzy Baroud,
Leli Blagonravova, Sofia Chaava, Kate Holt, Larry James, Salome Jashi, Ewa Jasiewicz, Jana Javakhishvili,
Maggie Kane, Temuri Kighuradze, David Kvijinadze, Giuliana Sgrena, Vakho Shalibashvili, Jack Shenker, Nino
Shushania, Vaughan Smith, John Spaul, Chris Stephen, Guram Tsibakhashvili, Nino Zhizhilashvili, Zoriah, and
anon as well as to Giorgi Gogia of Human Rights Watch and to the Tim Hetherington Trust and Stephen Mayes
for permission to quote Tim Hetherington.
With much thanks to Steven Hoggett, Miriam Nabarro, Penny Mayes, Natasha Chivers, Pete Malkin and Andy
Shewan of the production team of the staged version.
A B B E Y S TA G E
D A T E S : Fr i d a y 2 3 J a n u a r y, 4 . 4 5 p m
T I C K E T S : Ti ck e t s a r e f r e e a s p a r t o f Th e Th e at r e o f War Symp o s i u m
REHEARSED READINGS
RETURNING
TO
HAIFA
adapted by naomi wallace and ismail karim khalidi
from the novella by ghassan kanafani
directed by raz shaw
When he reached the edge of Haifa, approaching by car along the Jerusalem road, Said had the sensation
that something was binding his tongue, compelling him to keep silent, and he felt grief well up inside him.
A stage adaptation of one of the most iconic works of Palestinian resistance literature, Returning to Haifa
tells the story of two Palestinians returning to the home they were driven from twenty years ago. It is a
haunting tale of the repercussions and residues of dispossession and loss in Palestine and Israel.
P E A C O C K S TA G E
D A T E : Th u r s d ay 22 January, 6pm
T I C K E T S : €6 / Conc. € 4
a co-commission between the abbey theatre &
the goethe-institut, dublin
SHIBBOLETH
STACEY GREGG
directed by maisie lee
Belfast construction workers Alan, Mo, Corey and Stuarty– the “Brickies” – are building yet another
so-called “Peacewall” in the city to separate “Themens” and “Usens” from each other. Polish-born Yuri
arrives to take his place amongst the Brickies, who regard him with great suspicion at first, but eventually
welcome him in as one of their own. When Yuri admits his anguish to them about his daughter Agnieszka
having been beaten up by her Belfast boyfriend, they rally around with their support. This results in a
deception, and a tragic casualty.
Shibboleth is at once a symbolic homage to the common man and a sensitive exploration of working-class
Belfast life.
P E A C O C K S TA G E
D A T E : F R I DAY 2 3 January, 6pm
T I C K E T S : €6 / Conc. € 4
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