Abstract
Documentary theatre is a genre in which real sources and events are used and edited to become the form of dramatic texts and performances. The personal experiences narrated in No Escape (2010), a documentary play by Mary Raftery, have shocked many people, due to the play’s multiple graphic descriptions of child abuse which took place in industrial schools and orphanages in Ireland. This article analyses how pain is presented in No Escape, by contrasting the language used, in their respective lines in the play, by authorities, victims, and representatives of the institutions. Pain, as a physical and psychological sensation, is a subject that still needs to be examined further in discussing the history of Ireland, to provide scholars and society with an opportunity to reflect upon this subject – and, perhaps, achieve healing.
Highlights
Irish history and literature are filled with moments built on pain, whether it be explicit physical pain, or implicit, as a feeling, as a private experience
The pain discussed in this article relates to the various types of abuse perpetrated in Irish orphanages and industrial schools throughout the twentieth century, as represented in the documentary play No Escape (2010), by Mary Raftery
The performance was followed by a round-table discussion with the translator, the director, Brazilian theatre critic José Cetra, Irish researcher Sheila Ahern – a long-time collaborator with Mary Raftery – and Emilie Pine, the principal investigator in the research project Industrial Memories – a UCD digital humanities project conducted as a response to the Ryan Report (Pine 2015-2019)
Summary
Natália E. L. Pastore, Alinne B. P. Fernandes, and Beatriz K. Bastos, Describing pain... scholars and society with an opportunity to reflect upon this subject – and, perhaps, achieve healing. Keywords: Documentary Theatre; Irish Theatre; Pain; Mary Raftery; No Escape
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