Staging Transition: Theatre and Transitional Justice in Post-Conflict Northern Ireland

在我的学士学位和MRE学位论文的原始研究的基础上，这位博士探索了戏剧作为补充/替代过渡司法目标的手段的潜力，并认为过渡司法的原则可以增强创造性艺术在北爱尔兰冲突转变中发挥的作用。鉴于未能就作为《耶稣受难日协定》(1998年)一部分处理过去问题的总体机制达成一致，这一点尤其重要。虽然《斯托蒙特之家协议》(包含30项关于“过去”的独立建议)于2014年缔结，但该协议尚未得到实施；其结果是严重依赖刑事司法和警务系统为受害者和幸存者提供“零敲碎打”的真相和正义。在这种政治失败造成的真空中，艺术家和过渡时期司法倡议都在寻找处理过去的替代方法；这是一种被忽视的批判性和创造性的重叠，本跨学科研究将对此进行考察。尽管分析了民间社会在动员真相和正义方面的作用，通常被称为“自下而上的过渡司法”(McEway和McGregor，2008)，但在戏剧领域还没有系统地探索类似的工作。这项研究借鉴了德里剧场、抒情剧场和卡博什剧场的作品，将分析一系列冲突后戏剧/表演，这些戏剧/表演来自不同的形式和传统；从特定地点的表演到逐字/记录片戏剧。这项研究还将考虑德里的“证人剧场”方案中的剧场，该方案为受害者和幸存者提供了一个在公共舞台上讲述个人故事的证言平台；为他们配备了过渡司法寻求通过替代程序实现的机构。我还将与卡博什和抒情剧院一起参与前战斗人员(如劳伦斯·麦基翁、鲍比·尼布洛克)的工作，因为这是过渡司法的共同领域，承认前囚犯在冲突后社会中可以发挥的建设性作用，以及这部虚构的作品在多大程度上有助于在“真实”世界中“排练”潜在的政治和解情景。我还将考虑与各种受害者团体、社区组织、人权机构和明确参与过渡司法的组织合作开展的戏剧作品，如通过记忆治愈、浪潮创伤中心和受害者和幸存者委员会。我对这一冲突后戏剧性事件的广泛档案的分析为过渡司法倡议的报告和建议提供了有趣的衬托，从HTR的工作到斯托蒙特之家协议。这项跨学科研究提供了北爱尔兰第一个关于戏剧和过渡时期司法的比较研究，希望展示戏剧和过渡时期司法如何突出证词的表演性力量和“真相”的复杂性。我希望强调每个领域都有丰富彼此的巨大潜力，因为它们在记忆和纪念模式、创伤和证词、受害者的声音和机构方面都有共同利益。鉴于讲故事对戏剧本质和过渡时期司法的核心做法的核心作用，本研究将比较分析过渡时期司法用来创建和整理口头档案的方法和概念方法，以及由戏剧从业者开发的方法和概念方法，以产生证词/逐字记录剧。为了回答这些研究问题，我打算通过与戏剧和过渡时期司法领域的主要从业人员和学者进行访谈，以及记录/分析相关作品的演出后讨论，来多样化在我的MRE论文期间开发的方法。该项目将需要与抒情剧院、卡博什剧院、德里·普雷霍剧院密切合作

Building on original research for my BA and MRes dissertations, this PhD explores the potential of theatre to 'act' as a means of supplementing/surrogating the objectives of transitional justice, and argues that the principles of Transitional Justice can enhance the role that the creative arts play in conflict transformation in Norther Ireland. This is especially important given the failure to agree an overarching mechanism to deal with the past as part of the Good Friday Agreement (1998). While the Stormont House Agreement (containing thirty separate recommendations on 'the past') was concluded in 2014, it has yet to be implemented; the result has been heavy dependence on the criminal justice and policing system to provide a 'piecemeal' delivery of truth and justice for victims and survivors. In the vacuum resulting from this political failure, artists and transitional justice initiatives have both sought alternative ways of dealing with the past; an overlooked critical and creative overlap that this interdisciplinary study will examine. Despite the analysis of the role of civil society in mobilising truth and justice often referred to as 'transitional justice from below' (McEvoy and McGregor 2008), there has been no systematic exploration of similar work in the field of theatre. Drawing upon the productions by Derry Playhouse, the Lyric and Kabosh theatres, this study will analyse a range of post-conflict plays/performances drawn from different forms and traditions; from site-specific performances to verbatim/documentary plays. This research will also consider the Playhouse in Derry's 'Theatre of Witness' Program which provides a testimonial platform for victims and survivors to tell personal stories on the public stage; equipping them with an agency that Transitional Justice seeks to achieve through alternative processes. I will also engage with the work of ex-combatants (such as Laurence McKeown, Bobby Niblock), with Kabosh and the Lyric Theatre, as this is a shared area of transitional justice in acknowledging the constructive role ex-prisoners can play in post-conflict society, and how much of this fictional work helps to 'rehearse' potential scenarios of political reconciliation in the 'real' world. I'll also consider theatrical works undertaken in collaboration with various victims' groups, community organisations, human rights bodies, and organisations explicitly involved in transitional justice such as Healing Through Remembering, WAVE Trauma Centre, and the Victims and Survivors Commission. My analysis of this extensive archive of post-conflict drama provides a fascinating foil to the reports and recommendations of transitional justice initiatives, from the work of HTR through to the Stormont House Agreement. In providing the first comparative study of theatre and transitional justice in Northern Ireland, this interdisciplinary study hopes to demonstrate how theatre and transitional justice foreground the performative power of testimony and the complexity of 'truth'. I hope to highlight the huge potential each field has for enriching the other, given their mutual interest in modes of memory and remembrance, trauma and testimony, victims' voices and agency. Given the centrality of storytelling to the essence of theatre and core practices of transitional justice, this study will comparatively analyse the methodological and conceptual approaches transitional justice employs to create and curate oral archives with those developed by theatre practitioners to generate testimonial/verbatim drama. To answer these research questions, I intend to diversify methodologies developed during my MRes thesis by conducting interviews with leading practitioners and scholars in the fields of theatre and transitional justice, as well as recording/analysing post-show discussions of relevant productions. This project will entail close co-operation with the Lyric Theatre, Kabosh, the Derry Playho