Day 1: Context and perspectives

Day One invites audiences to learn more about the context of Roger Casement in the Amazon and why theatre maker Mark Maughan wants to revisit this history now.

Mark will talk about the context of the project with readings by performers from Roger Casement’s diaries. This will be followed by recordings of testimonies from the people Mark has met in an area of the Colombian Amazon called La Chorerra over the past few years, from the Bora, Huitoto, Muinane and Okaina nations.

Mark will then invite a number of activists and academics from different backgrounds to share their perspectives on this story from the Amazon and how it might be widened beyond Casement’s experience, opening out into a facilitated conversation with the audience.

The session will end by defining the key questions that should remain alive as the project develops.

Contributors:

Jeffrey Dudgeon MBE, Northern Irish politician, historian and gay political activist.

Kinti Orellana, lecturer, researcher, journalist and consultant amplifying Indigenous voices and wisdom globally, of the Kichwa-kañari nation.

Erna Von-Wall, Colombian essayist, translator, and researcher in the areas of Colombian and Latin American literature, art and politics.

Almiro Andrade, Black Queer Latinx playwright, dramaturg, educationist, theatre translator and Associate at Out of The Wings Collective.

Facilitation:

Anahí Saravia Herrera, Latinx writer, producer, creative researcher and co-runner of Performing Borders.

Day 2: Theatre and (in)justice

Day Two will explore Mark’s longterm interest in alternative justice processes and how he might use these as a creative starting point for the project.

Alternative justice processes are alternatives to the formal justice system, some of which have originated from Indigenous nations like the ones Mark has been working with in the Colombian Amazon. This includes the ‘Restorative Approach’ to justice, which focuses on relationship building and conflict resolution, addressing the consequences of harm and allowing for repair and learning.

Following a dramatised representation of moments from the 1912 trial by the UK Parliamentary Special Committee of the Peruvian Amazon Company, Mark will then invite specialists from a range of organsiations and practices to speak to how justice is done in their worlds.

As well as discussion, Restorative Now will facilitate a core practice from their restorative justice approach called ‘spinning a circle’ with the audience in the room. Using themes from the project, the group discussion activity will shed light on reparative approaches to mending damage done in the past, such as that done in the Amazon.

Contributors:

Dr Awol Allo, senior legal scholar specializing in human rights, social movements, peace-building, and transitional justice.

Alejandra Llano, social leader working with Indigenous peoples, part of the design and implementation process of the Ethnic Chapter of the Colombian Truth Commission.

Fernando Jifichiu Kumimarima, elder of the Bora nation in La Chorrera, Colombia.

Facilitation:

Janine Carroll and Paul Aruliah from Restorative Now.

Day 3: Representation and interpretation

Day Three looks at ideas of representation and interpretation, and the ethics of using theatrical representation to tell real stories from people who may not be physically present to tell the story themselves.

During the day, Mark will be working with dramaturgs, actors, set designers and filmmakers to play with theatrical imagery linked to these stories, including filmed material from the Colombian Amazon made with one of his collaborators based in La Chorrera, Ferney Iyokina Gittoma, from the Okaina nation.

Mark will choose a number of specific stories from his research and discuss the different approaches to theatricalising them in conversation with filmmakers and a dramaturg. This will be followed by an open discussion aimed at troubling the notion of theatrical re-telling and ultimately asking: how do you share an experience of the world if you are not the one who has experienced it?

Contributors:

Ferney Iyokina Gittoma, filmmaker from the Okaina nation in La Chorrera, Colombia, and co-founder of the Turan Tyurañocha film foundation.

Luisa Mancilla, Latinx filmmaker & organiser of expanded cinema and community events.

Tyrone Huggins, theatre practitioner with a background in experimental performance, co-creation and collaboration, Associate Artist at Forced Entertainment.

Facilitation:

Dr. Maria Estrada Fuentes, Colombian theatre and performance studies scholar working on applied theatre, transitional justice and conflict transformation.

Day 4: Endnote

After a day to collect and reconcile all that has come up during the Open Research Week, Mark will give an endnote, presenting the findings and questions that came out most strongly through conversations with experts and audiences.

In conversation with BAC Head of Programming, Pelin Basaran, Mark will unpick the complexities of the project and the steps he wants to take next to finish making it.