Performance and Peacebuilding, between Consensus and Agonism: The Sejny Chronicles and Moush, Sweet Moush

Abstract

This chapter investigates memory projects that make use of oral history for the development of theatrical performances. It shows how such projects can follow both consensus-driven and agonistic approaches to historical conflict, and asks what strategic value these differing approaches may have depending on the circumstances in which individual projects are carried out. The chapter analyses performance not simply as a theatrical text or the performance of that text for an audience, but as a collaborative process that can allow participants to work through historical antagonism. The authors analyse and compare two multidisciplinary projects involving theatre performances and oral histories as a means to address the complex, entangled memories and difficult histories of two borderland areas. Moush, Sweet Moush was a performance that emerged in 2011-2012 in the context of a broader, multi-phase reconciliation project between Armenia and Turkey. The performance involved young people exploring the everyday memories of two places: Moush, a town in Turkey from which Armenians fled during the Genocide, and villages in Armenia where those escaping the Genocide found refuge. The Sejny Chronicles is an ongoing theatre workshop and play, organised by the Borderland Foundation and performed by young people, aimed at rediscovering the rich multicultural history of Sejny located on the Polish/Lithuanian border using oral histories handed down by its residents. Through a series of interviews related to both case studies, the authors examine the philosophy that underpins these projects in relation to memory work, highlighting how consensus or agonism may emerge in such projects in response to local conditions and the needs of participants.