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

在我的学士学位和硕士学位论文的原始研究基础上，这位博士探讨了戏剧“作为补充/替代过渡时期司法目标的手段”的潜力，并认为过渡时期司法的原则可以增强创造性艺术在北爱尔兰冲突转型中发挥的作用。鉴于未能在《耶稣受难日协议》（1998年）中就处理过去的总体机制达成一致，这一点尤为重要。虽然斯托蒙特住宅协议（包含30项关于“过去”的单独建议）于2014年达成，但尚未实施；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。在这一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求处理过去的其他方法；一个被忽视的批判性和创造性的重叠，这个跨学科的研究将检查。尽管对公民社会在动员真相和正义方面的作用进行了分析，通常被称为“自下而上的过渡正义”（McEvoy和McGregor 2008），但在戏剧领域还没有对类似工作进行系统的探索。根据德里剧院、抒情剧院和卡波什剧院的作品，本研究将分析一系列来自不同形式和传统的冲突后戏剧/表演；从特定场地的表演到逐字记录的戏剧。本研究还将考虑德里“见证剧院”项目中的剧场，该项目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见证平台；为他们配备一个过渡时期司法试图通过其他程序实现的机构。我还将参与前战斗人员（如劳伦斯·麦基翁，鲍比·尼布洛克）的工作，与卡博什和抒情剧院，因为这是一个共同的过渡正义领域，承认前囚犯在冲突后社会中可以发挥建设性作用，以及这些虚构的工作在多大程度上有助于“排练”在“真实”世界中政治和解的潜在场景。我也会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的戏剧作品，如通过记忆治愈、波浪创伤中心和受害者和幸存者委员会。我对大量冲突后戏剧档案的分析为过渡时期司法倡议的报告和建议提供了迷人的衬托，从HTR的工作到斯托蒙特之家协议。在提供戏剧和过渡时期司法在北爱尔兰的第一个比较研究，这个跨学科的研究希望证明戏剧和过渡时期司法前景的证词和“真相”的复杂性的表演力量。我希望强调每个领域在丰富彼此方面的巨大潜力，因为它们在记忆和记忆模式、创伤和证词、受害者的声音和能动性方面都有共同的兴趣。鉴于讲故事对戏剧的本质和过渡正义的核心实践的中心地位，本研究将比较分析过渡正义用于创建和策划口头档案的方法和概念方法，以及戏剧从业者为生成证词/逐字戏剧而开发的方法和概念方法。为了回答这些研究问题，我打算通过对戏剧和过渡司法领域的主要从业者和学者进行采访，以及记录/分析相关作品的演出后讨论，使我在MRes论文中开发的方法多样化。该项目将需要与抒情剧院、卡波什、德里剧场密切合作

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