DISPLACED R&D
a research and field work project investigating the Arms Trade and British imperialism
““Britain cannot set the house on fire and expect the people in it to stay inside.””
From the boardrooms of corporate arms giants, through the halls of Parliament, to shelled hospitals and detainees waterboarded in a NATO black site in Romania, DISPLACED [working title] tells the stories of those displaced by British ‘humanitarian’ interventions and murdered by the arms we export. Following the UK tour of ILLEGALISED (Spring 2019), DISPLACED [working title] is the second in BÉZNĂ’s protest-play cycle denouncing the British State’s dehumanising of people from colonial times to today.
Britain sells arms to 39 of the 51 countries deemed “not free”
U.N. declared war on Yemen as ‘humanity’s greatest preventable disaster’
24 million+ in need of aid
4 million+ displaced
250 million dead predicted by 2020
UK’s £5 billion gained in arms contracts in the Yemen war declared unlawful
DISPLACED [working title] will be informed by interviews with current / ex-service people, UK arms factory employees, people seeking asylum from war & conflict, people still living in conflict zones, psychologists & doctors who have worked in war-zones and the UK’s leading anti-war / anti-colonial experts and activists, conducted in an ACE, Unity Theatre Trust and Pluto Press-supported R&D (September - December 2019).
We will investigate the arms trade’s link to foreign policy, the link between the oil wars and the climate crisis and the physical effects of the weapons Britain makes, sells and fires. The material gathered will inform a highly contemporary, politically charged and visceral multi-lingual text characteristic of our European practice and artistic voice. With DISPLACED we will provoke British audiences to question their government’s accountability for the displacement and deaths of millions.
DISPLACED R&D is devoted to discovering the stories of those murdered and displaced by British ‘humanitarian’ interventions and mass arms exports.
Interviews will take place in the UK starting with September 2019. All interviewees will be paid London Living Wage for their time (£10.55/hour).
Contact us if you want to be involved: contact@beznatheatre.org
