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

这项后续建议将通过使年轻人能够直接和创造性地参与在AHRC资助的“拿破仑时代的法国剧院”项目(2013-2017年)期间开展的研究，产生重大的额外影响。1796年，在波特切斯特城堡上演了一出关于加勒比海革命者的新剧，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。这部作品的录音将成为一系列教育资源的核心，以帮助英国遗产讲述被遗忘的黑人历史部分。最初的研究表明，在第一帝国时期，戏剧在塑造关于国家地位和政治合法性的辩论中有多么重要，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呼应。1807年，停泊在朴次茅斯港的皇冠号监狱上的法国战俘开设了一家仿真剧院(这个名字来自巴黎一家颇受欢迎的大道剧院)，并首演了一部四幕历史剧--关于海地的革命慈善家或赫克托姆，它解决了海地革命的煽动性话题。该剧的一份手稿幸存下来，它与那个时期唯一已知的另一部幸存的法国战俘戏剧手稿--罗塞丽斯卡--有许多共同的主题，后者于1810年在波切斯特城堡首演。自由、监禁、抵抗、爱国主义和忠诚的思想充斥着这两本书，但与罗塞利斯卡不同的是，这位革命慈善家在21世纪的背景下是无法实现的，因为它再现了18世纪的种族差别观念，这些观念在今天是完全不可接受的。2019年，声音艺术家伊莱恩·米切纳颠覆了《革命慈善家》的匿名作者的意图，在波切斯特城堡华威委托的声音装置《Les Mur sontémoins/This Walls Bear Witness》中使用了该机构的摘录，从而突出了黑人机构在争取解放的斗争中的意图。这揭示了该剧作为探索加勒比海革命和波特切斯特在全球历史上的作用的创造性工作的潜力：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，被英国人抓获并送往波特切斯特。他们的生活反映了革命慈善家舞台上的叛逆者的生活。遗产彩票基金已经支付了我自2020年7月以来与导演蒙巴·多德韦尔和剧作家拉克莎·阿里-安杰洛合作的费用，并在英国遗产的旗舰青年参与计划Shout Loud下参加了为期两周的研发[研发]研讨会。两个强有力的正在进行中的表演对参与者来说是变革性的。NLHF的资金永远不足以支付全部生产，很明显，该项目的遗产现在将达不到其全部潜力，除非新剧在波特切斯特现场演出，以有意义地参与到波特切斯特作为战争监狱仓库的非殖民化历史中。后续资金将使我们能够继续与编剧和导演合作，并录制作品，作为一系列教育资源的焦点。该剧的现场直播将在EH和NYT YouTube频道同时播出，这两个频道总共拥有130万订户。这部新剧与《纽约时报》的年轻黑人演员合作，探讨了关于人权、歧视、身份和权力的基本问题。它超越了传统的被奴役者作为受害者的叙事，颂扬了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，显著提高原始研究项目的价值和更广泛的好处，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.