True stories of silence, secrecy and healing
'We Carried Your Secrets' is a multimedia production which unites a group of fathers who are ex-combatants and who were on the front lines during the Troubles.
Together they share their shadow stories of the conflict, their reasons for actively joining their political group and of their transformation. In his review of this innovative production, local writer EAMONN BAKER says it's a performance that 'richly deserves nightly standing ovations'
I have heard often about writer/directors who script their work, whether play or film, based upon intimate detailed interviews conducted with "ordinary people" who become involved in day to day struggles for truth, justice, liberation.
These writers/ directors often go on to cast actors to play the parts of these "ordinary people" in the script they have devised.
Theatre of Witness/We Carried Your Secrets is different. There were interviews sure. Many of them. Intimate, detailed, emotional, emotive. For these to happen in this way, trust had to be gathered up, built upon, slowly, tangibly, daringly, and joyfully. People from most community and political backgrounds here were included in the process.
Young people grappling with the turbulent realities of a post-ceasefire Northern Ireland were welcomed. It was hoped that the interviewees, with little or no acting experience, could agree to work together, to appear on stage together "playing themselves" in a collaborative production that might reflect the multiple stories of the Troubles and the Peace Process.
Overcoming whatever was in the way, they did agree. A script was created byTeya Sepinuck, the originator and director of Theatre of Witness, tested and tried with the interviewees, the storytellers, then re-shaped and honed. This script finally was agreed by all of the interviewees and their families. Music and film was integrated to underscore and amplify the feeling surging from the stage as these non-actors became performers of their own life stories.
On stage last Thursday night at the Playhouse were the actual IRA ex-combatant, the actual Loyalist ex-combatant, the actual daughter of an RUC man caught in the maelstrom of the Omagh bomb, the actual son of a Sinn Fein councillor murdered by Loyalists, the actual young man in his early twenties pressing to make sense of this history as we trouble ourselves to build peace. Present through film, we had the ex-RUC man and current PSNI officer - current "legitimate target" for dissident republicans. And all the time as well, silence personified. "Whatever you say, say nothing "
As these following words of response come tumbling out, they may seem like theatre critic cliches: Theatre of Witness/We Carried Your Secrets is characterised by "intensely moving performances" within an "unflinching authentic script" and is "searingly honest storytelling about the impact of the Troubles". Except, this time, "We Carried Your Secrets" earns and fully deserves our every word of praise.
Beating the drum
Audience members sighed and wept as young Finnbarr brilliantly beat his drums - a way to let out his anger without hurting anyone - and then told us about his Da murdered in Magherafelt; as James fished in the bloodied troubled waters of his own loyalist history, as the former RUC officer laid bare the unmitigated horror of the Coshquin bomb, as young Victoria slowly, ritually, achingly, clothed herself in the RUC uniform of her father called to respond to the Omagh massacre, as big Jon stretched out to both embrace and release himself from his Bogside history of disenfranchisement and uprising, as Chris ranted and raved, fought and searched for passion and purpose in his young life, as Finnbarr beat his drums. And, all the while, Ciaran held his silence.
Heroically, first to her feet in the discussion afterwards, was Kathleen Gillespie (widow of Coshquin bomb victim, Patsy) who congratulated the cast, Teya Sepinuck, and all involved for their courage in bringing before us, so movingly, these diverse stories.
Another audience member confessed himself stunned, describing the impact as like that of "open heart surgery" on the wounds of Derry, Londonderry, Northern Ireland, Ireland. A friend spoke to me of "the toxins that have flowed through the bloodstream of our community leading us to justify, so self-righteously, acts of savage inhumanity."
Another spoke of her sadness that the PSNI officer could not be there to stand before us in solidarity with his fellow performers as close together, on stage, arm in arm, they swayed to their own rhythmic, bluesy soulful heartsound. And afterwards, too, some of us could not speak but we knew that "We Carried Your Secrets" - out of the very truthfulness of its mutliple narratives - has the power to heal.
It is fitting that both the Playhouse and Holywell Trust have been involved in stewarding the process that has brought Theatre of Witness to the people of our city. For so many years, both have been to the forefront in their particular fields - arts, community arts, community development and good relations work.
'Ordinary' people
"We Carried Your Secrets" is the apotheosis of that community arts storytelling tradition where "ordinary" people create extraordinary magic. Teya Sepinuck and her support staff have been the guardian angels and guiding lights of this heart-opening process. The performers - non-actors, six men and one woman "off the streets" - richly deserve their nightly standing ovations.
The healing power of the multiple truths witnessed here is indeed "good medicine" for all of us who have carried the terribles hurts of the Troubles for far too long.
'We Carried Your Secrets will be staged at the Waterside Theatre this Thursday night and at St Mary's Hall, Buncrana on November 25.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Derry
Saturday 04 February 2012
Today
Heavy rain
Temperature: 3 C to 10 C
Wind Speed: 28 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Light rain
Temperature: 6 C to 7 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: South west
