A Prisoner's Dilemma
Tweet

Conflict Policy Seminar Centres on RSC Dilemma

The Royal Shakespeare Company has joined forces with the Oxford Research Group and the Institute for Group Analysis to run a unique policy seminar on conflict resolution. The two-day event, entitled "Theatre of War, Theatre of Peace: Dealing with Conflict in the 21st Century", takes places this Thursday and Friday (31 January and 1 February 2002) at The Pit Theatre at London's Barbican Centre.

The seminar will centre around a performance of the RSC production of David Edgar's The Prisoner's Dilemma, which opens this week in repertory at The Pit, following its Stratford run last year. Directed by Michael Attenborough (who's due to take over the artistic directorship of the Almeida Theatre this summer), The Prisoner's Dilemma (pictured) is the third of Edgar's plays about the aftermath by the fall of the Berlin Wall and dramatises fictional attempts to resolve a bloody conflict on Europe's Eastern border.

The "Theatre of War, Theatre of Peace" seminar will deal with the fact of the matter, exploring the varied approaches and methods for conflict prevention and peace-building that have evolved since the Cold War and which could be used effectively in Afghanistan.

Director of the Oxford Research Group Scilla Elworthy, psychotherapist Susie Orbach and Guardian political journalist Jonathan Freedland will chair the expert participants drawn from the political, NGO and theatre worlds. Speakers will include Jo Tuffnell and Patrick Magee. The latter planted the Brighton bomb that killed the former's father in 1984.

Michael Attenborough and David Edgar will also be on hand to lead a post-performance analysis of The Prisoner's Dilemma.

For further information, call the Oxford Research Group on 01865 242 819 or visit http://www.oxfordresearchgroup.org.uk.

- by Terri Paddock

Related Content