Two worlds or one?
Peter Fishpool reflects on an award-winning production
A play about the experiences of wounded soldiers, in their own words, is currently touring. The Two Worlds of Charlie F won an Amnesty Freedom of Expression award. A documentary about it was shown on BBC1. The drama is based on interviews with thirty-two wounded veterans, mostly from Afghanistan. The current cast includes eight of the veterans along with seven actors. The producer Alice Driver intended ‘to boost the confidence, self esteem and give a voice to the wounded, injured and sick’. As a former drama teacher I understand using drama as therapy. I saw the show at Malvern where ninety-five per cent of the audience gave it a standing ovation. The final speech by Charlie F argues that we do not live in two worlds – we live in one. I understood he was asking for veterans to be fully integrated back into everyday life.
Conflicting worlds had been a recurring motif. The veterans had earlier talked about the disengagement they had to make with home life to enable them to concentrate on surviving in the war zone… and to protect their families from the horrors their soldier loved ones were enduring. The second half includes a powerful sequence about how the pain relief administered in Selly Oak Hospital, which is down the road from me, messes with their minds, creating another world from which they have to reconcile themselves.
I am actively engaged in men’s work, working on emotional literacy. It is ‘inner work’ to make a difference out in the world, fed by the wisdom traditions of forgiveness and radical inclusivity. Amongst others, this work draws on Carl Jung’s four male archetypes: King, Warrior, Magician and Lover. Warrior energy is often the prevailing challenge for men. Anger management is a big issue. As we try to work towards sacrificial safeguarding, men stutter and stumble and often end up as domineering and violent. The Samurai warriors of Japan had a highly developed honour code that disciplined their thinking and actions. The spiritual warriors of Buddhism battle with the universal enemy: self-ignorance – the ultimate source of suffering.
Men’s work looks to integrate, bringing into balance leadership, safe-guarding, interpretation and passion. This is a masculine path to healing, revealing the true and false self and honouring the path of descent. Males learn about grace by their experience of brokenness and falling. It is when they allow themselves to be vulnerable that they really open up to the power of love.
The Two Worlds of Charlie F left me exasperated by the seeming lack of critical awareness about armed intervention. Therapy is an ongoing process. The piece is a snapshot along the way. I hope performers and observers will allow repetition of this presentation to penetrate their consciousness and challenge their stereotypes. I felt I was being encouraged to collude with a conspiracy of delusion about military intervention.
Murder is taboo in all civilised societies. Some theologians concoct theories of ‘Just War’ to legitimize homicide by our armed forces. Britain’s first military interventions in Afghanistan go back to the early 1800s. We tell ourselves that we are acting as part of the world’s police force – protecting the freedom of the meek; but we do not recognise the many disconnections in that analysis. I read long ago, at teacher training college, about Paulo Freire’s process of ‘conscientisation’. This describes that education which exposes social and political contradictions and leads to taking action against the oppressive elements of life that are highlighted by that understanding.
Oh what a lovely war it would be if wounded veterans were key to changing lives. We need to see not multiple worlds, but one we all share. We need to see a world in which we have learned from centuries of experience and developed nonviolent alternatives to military incursion.
