Bloody Sunday

Bloody Sunday Lauren Jackson, Stephanie Russell, Sean Ogle, Ruth Goodwin, and Austin Schaeffer Curator's Introduction This group focused on the publication of the Saville Report on 15 June 20101 and UK Prime Minister David Cameron's subsequent apology to the British people for the actions of British paratroopers on Bloody Sunday (30 January 1972). In early discussions they explained that they wanted to explore the significance of an official apology as a retroactive, performative gesture. The final product explores how this official apology, decades after the fact, is part of the larger process of creating a historical narrative by remembering a moment from a certain perspective. By juxtaposing various points of view, the BBC project performed in this piece uses the figures of the victim, the Protestant child witness, the soldier who opened fire, the outraged militant, and the bereaved partner to construct one specific way of remembering the incident. This singular narrative shapes the stories of the imagined individuals under the guise of testimony. The Stage Manager's focus on getting everything to look, sound, and feel right for the screen emphasizes the performed disregard for complexity in this narrative. Even David Cameron, as represented, is not allowed to speak in his own, readily available words in delivering his apology. The Prime Minister in this documentary must embody the deep conflict that the government preceding his by almost forty years must have felt. What appears on every "cue card labeled BBC" is, as the Cameraperson interjects, "such bullshit." This dissident voice is forcibly silenced. Bloody Sunday also addresses discursive violence at work in Prime Minister David Cameron's apology. The play suggests that this apology frames the people gunned down by armed forces, and by extension all people in Northern Ireland who advocate(d) for separation from the UK, as perpetual victims. Locking them in this identity denies any progress made in the thirty years separating the act from the apology. The Cameraperson's outburst, "I'm not scared to talk about what happened ... I'm scared that nobody will listen!" succinctly addresses the challenge in discussing "difficult stories." The treatment of the audience for this piece also concerns ways of remembering. Audience members are separated according to no particular criteria, and made to experience the piece under forced comfort or forced discomfort. On a literal level, this device makes the experience of segregation and arbitrary treatment by authority figures real for the audience, echoing everyday experience in Ireland during the Troubles. As staged for the class presentation, it also allowed one half of the audience to watch the performance from a removed space (the Rotunda balcony). Although these audience members must endure the Security Guard's bullying, they are physically removed from complicity in the official narrative being constructed on the stage floor. Bloody Sunday Cast List STAGE MANAGER, Lauren Jackson CAMERAPERSON, Stephanie Russell ACTOR NUMBER ONE, Sean Ogle ACTOR NUMBER TWO, Ruth Goodwin SECURITY GUARD, Austin Schaeffer (The audience is separated into Catholics and Protestants. Half the audience is greeted nicely by the ACTORS, who invite them to sit comfortably up near the stage. The rest are shoved upstairs by a SECURITY GUARD and told to be quiet. This "event" is hosted by the BBC production company commissioned by the British Government, for a filming of Bloody Sunday. All the shots of the ACTORS are projected as live feed onto the stage behind the scene at hand. The two ACTORS hand out candy while a CAMERAPERSON sets up the equipment on stage. There is a STAGE MANAGER getting ready onstage, preparing cue cards and warming up.) Stage Manager: (Standing at a podium marked "BBC.") Welcome everyone. The British Broadcasting Corporation would like to thank you all for your participation this afternoon. We've been working on this project for months now [End Page 91] and your involvement is greatly important. Before we start is everyone comfortable? Great. As you know, Bloody Sunday was a terrible travesty and we here at BBC are committed to exposing the truth of that day's events, and the inquiry that followed. We all know that the British Army is the best in the world ... Actors: Here HERE! Stage Manager...

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