Performing Forgiveness from Coventry to Nanjing

Description

Performing Forgiveness is a research project based around Coventry-born writer and director Jude Christian’s acclaimed play NANJING, which explores themes of identity, memory and forgiveness in a personal response to the 1937 Nanjing Massacre. The play offers the chance for researchers to ask important questions about how performance interacts with concepts such as forgiveness, pacifism, identity, belonging, the character of trauma and the role of remembrance. Members of Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations (CTPSR), Centre for Dance Research (C-DaRE) and Centre for Postdigital Cultures (CPC) will work with Jude to hold participatory workshops and performances of NANJING. Several events and initiatives are planned in June 2021. There were three screenings of a film specially made of the work on the 16 June at Coventry Cathedral and Jude participated in after-screening curated discussions. Nanjing – Performing Forgiveness - Coventry UK City of Culture 2021 (coventry2021.co.uk). CTPSR and CDaRE will be hosting an online seminar on the topic of “Setting the Stage for Difficult Conversations: Theatre and Creative Methods as a Tool for Dialogue during COVID-19”. Performing 'Forgiveness' Seminar (onlinesurveys.ac.uk).The seminar will be recorded and available after the event. The research team will also be contributing a chapter called “Performing Forgiveness in the Age of Covid-19: Creating a Hybrid Performance for Dialogue and Peacebuilding” to the edited collection Art-Based Research in the Context of a Global Pandemic under contract with Routledge. Coventry University City of Culture Grants funds the research.

Period	21 Jun 2021
Held at	University of Warwick, United Kingdom
Degree of Recognition	International