Freedom and Revolution : engaging creatively with Portchester's French prisoners of war and Revolution in the Caribbean

这一后续提案将赋予年轻人直接和创造性地参与亚洲人权委员会资助的“拿破仑时代法国剧院”项目（2013-2017年）期间开展的研究的能力，从而产生重大的额外影响。1796年，在波切斯特城堡上演了一部关于加勒比革命者的新剧，国家青年剧院和汉普郡当地社区团体的成员将把这项研究带给现场观众和全球虚拟观众。制作的录音将是一系列教育资源的核心，以帮助英国遗产讲述黑人历史中被遗忘的部分。最初的研究表明，戏剧在塑造第一帝国时期关于国家地位和政治合法性的辩论中是多么重要，以及战俘戏剧如何促进文化交流，这些主题将在新剧中得到回应。1807年，停泊在朴茨茅斯港的“王冠”号监狱船上的法国战俘开设了一个仿真剧院（这个名字来自巴黎一个受欢迎的林荫大道剧院），并首演了一部四幕历史剧《革命慈善家》或《海地的赫卡托姆》，这部剧探讨了海地革命的煽动性话题。这部戏剧的手稿幸存下来，它与1810年在波切斯特城堡首演的另一部已知的幸存的法国战俘戏剧手稿《罗塞利斯卡》有许多共同的主题。自由、监禁、抵抗、爱国主义和忠诚的思想充斥着这两部作品，但与罗塞利斯卡不同的是，《革命慈善家》在21世纪的背景下是无法表演的，因为它再现了18世纪的种族差异观念，而这些观念在今天是完全不可接受的。2019年，声音艺术家Elaine Mitchener颠覆了《革命慈善家》的匿名作者的意图，通过在波切斯特城堡的沃里克委托声音装置《Les Murs sont témoins /These Walls Bear Witness》中使用其中的摘录来突出黑人在解放斗争中的作用。这揭示了创造性地利用该剧作为探索加勒比革命和波切斯特在全球历史上的作用的一种手段的潜力：1796年，来自圣卢西亚、圣文森特、瓜德罗普和海地的2000多名黑人革命者，包括妇女和儿童，被英国人抓获，并被送往波切斯特。他们的生活反映了《革命慈善家》中舞台上的反叛者。遗产彩票基金已经支付了我自2020年7月以来与导演Mumba Dodwell和剧作家Lakesha Arie-Angelo合作的费用，并在英国遗产的旗舰青年参与计划Shout Out Loud下参加了为期两周的研发研讨会。两个强大的工作在进行中的性能已经为那些参与变革。NLHF的资金永远不足以支付一个完整的生产，很明显，该项目的遗产现在将达不到其全部潜力，除非新的发挥是在现场执行波切斯特从事有意义的非殖民化波切斯特的历史作为一个战俘仓库。后续资金将使我们能够继续与剧作家和导演合作，并记录制作，作为一系列教育资源的重点。该剧的现场直播将在EH和NYT YouTube频道同时播出，这两个频道拥有130万订阅者。这部新剧是与《纽约时报》的年轻黑人演员共同创作的，探讨了有关人权、歧视、身份和权力的基本问题。它超越了被奴役者作为受害者的传统叙述，并庆祝妇女在革命中的作用。将其投入生产将使我们能够接触到新的受众，特别是在加勒比地区，大大提高原始研究项目的价值和更广泛的利益，并使年轻人能够掌握历史。

This follow-on proposal will provide significant additional impact by empowering young people to engage directly and creatively with research developed during the AHRC-funded "French Theatre of the Napoleonic Era" project (2013-2017). In performing a new play about the Caribbean Revolutionaries held at Portchester Castle in 1796, members of the National Youth Theatre and local Hampshire community groups will bring that research to both a live audience and a global virtual one. A recording of the production will be the centrepiece of a range of educational resources to help English Heritage tell a forgotten part of Black History. The original research showed how important theatre was in shaping debates about nationhood and political legitimacy during the First Empire and how prisoner-of-war theatre fostered cultural exchange, themes that will be echoed in the new play. In 1807, French prisoners of war on board the prison hulk The Crown, moored in Portsmouth Harbour, opened a Theatre of Emulation (the name comes from one of the popular Boulevard theatres in Paris) and premiered a 4-act historical drama, The Revolutionary philanthropist or Hecatomb on Haiti, which tackled the incendiary topic of the Haitian Revolution. A manuscript of the play survives and it shares a number of themes with the only other known surviving French prisoner-of-war play manuscript of the period, Roseliska, which premiered at Portchester Castle in 1810. Ideas of freedom, imprisonment, resistance, patriotism and loyalty suffuse both texts but, unlike Roseliska, the Revolutionary Philanthropist is unperformable in a 21st-century context because it reproduces 18th-century notions of racial difference that are wholly unacceptable today. In 2019, sound artist Elaine Mitchener subverted the intention of the anonymous author of the Revolutionary Philanthropist to highlight Black agency in the struggle for emancipation by using extracts from it in a Warwick-commissioned sound installation, 'Les Murs sont témoins /These Walls Bear Witness' at Portchester Castle. This has revealed the potential for working creatively with the play as a means of exploring the Revolution in the Caribbean and Portchester's role in global history: over 2000 Black revolutionaries from St Lucia, St Vincent, Guadeloupe and Haiti, including women and children, were captured by the British in 1796 and sent to Portchester. Their lives mirror those of the on-stage rebels in the Revolutionary Philanthropist.Heritage Lottery Funding has already paid for me to work with a director, Mumba Dodwell and a playwright, Lakesha Arie-Angelo since July 2020, and for 2 weeks of R&D [research and development] workshops under English Heritage's flagship youth engagement programme Shout Out Loud. Two powerful work-in-progress performances have been transformational for those involved. The NLHF money was never going to be enough to cover a full production and it is clear that the legacy of the project will now fall short of its full potential unless the new play is performed on site at Portchester to engage meaningfully with decolonising Portchester's history as a prison-of-war depot. Follow-on funding would enable us to continue to work with playwright and director and record the production to use as the focal point of a range of educational resources. A live streaming of the play will be broadcast simultaneously on the EH and NYT YouTube channels, which between them have 1.3 million subscribers. The new play, written in conjunction with young Black actors from NYT, explores fundamental questions about human rights, discrimination, identity and power. It moves beyond traditional narratives of the enslaved as victims and celebrates the role of women in Revolution. Bringing it to production would allow us to reach new audiences, especially in the Caribbean, significantly enhance the value and wider benefits of the original research project and enable young people to take ownership of history.