Challenging production premieres in city

IF you missed the remarkable world premiere of Haris Pasovic’s ‘The Conquest of Happiness’ in Londonderry at the weekend or are amongst prospective audiences in Belfast and the Balkans here’s a preview filmed by the Sentinel on Saturday (September 21).

The challenging open air theatre piece takes the audience on an emotive tour of some of the worst atrocities of the 20th century.

Informed throughout by the ideas of philosopher Bertrand Russell, the audience visits Palestine, Auschwitz, Phnom Penh, My Lai, Srebernica and Kigali amongst other former scenes of horror.

The murder of Jackie Duddy on Bloody Sunday in Londonderry is dramatised during the performance.

The audience also witnesses a dramatisation of the murder of Chilean folk singer Victor Jara in the aftermath of Augusto Pinochet’s coup, 40 years ago this month.

A film of coup leaders Pinochet and José Merino was projected against the Ebrington clock tower to set the scene.

The unique production now sets off on a tour of Mr Pasovic’s native Balkans, which includes a show at the famous Mostar bridge.

It also tours to Ljubljana and Novi Sad. It returns to these shores for a performance in the Titanic quarter during the Belfast Festival at the end of October.