“You show me but I can not see” – Katja Ropret Perne

Katja works for Luzanky in Brno, Czech Republic, who are partners with Big Brum in the To Be Project.  She here offers a personal response to the ‘Living Question‘ event on 26 September 2020.

The conference ‘Drama, Theatre and Education – A living question‘ was Big Brum’s creative and meaningful answer to address the current times. As a part of an international project ‘To be or not to be well‘, an international community of drama educators, teachers and students met online to engage in the exploratory process, concentrated around Chris Cooper‘s play ‘Socially Distant‘. The event focused on exploring the well-being of young people and teachers.

Participants were engaged in the process a few days before the conference started, sharing the images of themselves and of the world in the time of a global pandemic. These images set the ground for our further understanding of how we feel, and how the young people can feel, in these times and what this has to say about the society we live in. The images worked as stimulants, preparing the mind and orientating the thinking (Richard Holmes‘s expression) towards further work. 

Already, the first task of conceptualising the above-mentioned images revealed the world of contradictions and binaries. While thinking of the chaotic world outside and peaceful inner world of the individuals, finally finding the time to slow down. Home as a safe place and a house as a prison. The relationship between personal care and common good. 

Experiencing all of these contradictions by myself, feeling calm while walking through the forest, feeling alone and worried in an empty apartment and feeling rage and powerless while observing shifts in the politics of my home country Slovenia, made me think of these questions. Can we feel well in this world? Can our well-being be isolated from the well-being of the others? Can we take care of our own well-being while the well-being of our countries is in danger? What is well-being in the first place?

Shared images also revealed that the epidemic happening right now is about much more than just the spread of Covid-19. It is about our relationships to each other, understanding and solidarity among us. Distancing, but still keeping together. Taking time to reflect upon ourselves and on the world around us. Being creative. On the other hand, it is also about politics and the people who hold power and their relationship towards us, abusing the situation and their authority. Accepting laws in their favour, making undemocratic decisions. Putting the economic interest before people’s lives. It is also about the vulnerable groups, being pushed even more to the side. And the privileged getting even more privileged. 

One of the questions posed at the conference was what does social distance mean to me? My first thoughts were: the lack of shared or common experience and understanding, lack of empathy. This made me realise that we were distant already before socially distancing. Not only from ourselves and each other, but also from the society; from the truth, power and control that we feel it is distancing from us. We are distant from the values and trust, which are now more than ever important. This time is showing us this more than ever. 

The concepts of isolation, distance and repression were presented in the shared images and central in the play ‘Socially Distant‘, which we were about to explore together. The character of the father in the play was the reflection of the world that was captured also in the images, the world children live in. The world that has no space for them. “Let me in! If you would only let me in“- were the words of the father in the play, pointing at the fact that we are estranged from the children’s lives and their lives are distant to us. It showed us we have to find the way to let the children into this world – before it will be too late, as for the boy from the story. 

My own experience with teaching during lockdown also reminded me of that. Feeling I cannot continue to teach the way I did before and reflecting upon what young people now really need, made me realise it is not important for them to remember the lines of the character or to pronounce the word in the right way, but to express themself, their feelings and emotions. To discuss with them how they are coping with the reality we are in. As experienced also at the conference, drama can provide us with the safe environment of the story and a frame for thinking and exploring our own living and the world around us. 

As also emphasised at the event, it is now time to take the responsibility for each other. It is time to create the opposite of the distancing – the connection. Among us, with ourselves, and most importantly, with young people, hand in hand. “You show me but I can not see”, said the character of the father in the play. It is now our responsibility to enable the young people to be seen.  

The last part of the conference contributed to that. To give the opportunity to the child to be seen. Through building up the monument for the boy from the play, that could not find his place in this world. The monument created a space for children’s needs. It was a contribution to the children, their place in the world and to the times they are living in now. 

Thinking about the concepts of isolation and distancing, finding myself and the portrait of the world in the play, hearing the thoughts and findings from others, helped me to build upon my understanding of our world right now. Through shared experience I came to the realisation that this is the time that is really crucial for reflection about ourselves, our role in young people’s lives and the reality we are currently faced with. And it is also our duty, as workers in the field of education, now probably more than ever, to help the children to build their own understanding of the reality, which will help them to live in this world and give them tools to liberate themselves. This is what I think education should be more about.