Podrum Gallery, Cultural Centre of Belgrade (Presented as part of the 58th BITEF)
While working for the US Army as an intelligence analyst in Baghdad, Chelsea Manning came across documents proving that the US military had committed numerous war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq, including more than 15,000 unreported civilian deaths and reports of torture. After facing the dilemma of remaining loyal to the power hierarchies to which she belonged or making the evidence of war crimes public, Manning uploaded more than 700,000 classified documents to WikiLeaks, including the video “Collateral Murder”, which shows US soldiers deliberately shooting civilians from a helicopter. She was later sentenced to 35 years in prison for leaking classified information, although Barack Obama commuted her sentence to “only” 7 years. It’s also notable that Chelsea Manning, formerly known as Bradley, came out as a transgender woman after her imprisonment and fought for her right to transitional care in prison.
As Manning was one of the key figures in WikiLeaks, along with Julian Assange and Edward Snowden, it’s understandable that this part of her biography sounds like a plot for an action thriller. However, her life not only has the dramatic potential for a blockbuster, but also for an independent, interactive, workshop-style theatre production that explores an endless stream of questions an interested observer might ask about her life. Some of these interested observers, director Irena Ristić and actor Đorđe Živadinović Grgur, joined forces earlier this year to develop such a performance, which they concisely called We Are Going to Make Something about War, Gender and Liberty, It Will Be Titled: What Would Chelsea Say.
Produced by the independent theatre group Hop.La! in collaboration with the Cultural Centre of Belgrade, the performance was also featured in the main program of the 58th BITEF and was part of the selection that addressed many important social issues, from the history of reproductive rights in Yugoslavia, sexual violence and art’s relationship to it, to ecological crises and the examination of our post-truth society.
In terms of aesthetics, particularly the way the show plays with the performance space and audience interaction, What Would Chelsea Say is at home in a festival like BITEF that showcases new theatrical tendencies. The show is performed in Galerija Podrum (Basement Gallery), an underground exhibition space under the Cultural Centre of Belgrade, where an intimate group of around 30 spectators gathers to see it. When the audience enters, they step into Škart Collective’s installation, where many materials related to Manning’s life and the performance itself are laid out. From a model of the prison where Manning was incarcerated, to her quotes printed on paper, books written about her (such as the play The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning by Tim Price), to other sources the authors used in preparing the show – the audience can look closely at or even touch the material. A screen next to the installation shows a montage sequence of US news clips about Manning. And after familiarizing themselves with the environment, audience members can choose to sit near the installation, where they are more likely to actively participate in the show, or sit a little further away and enjoy a more conventional theatrical experience. Ristić and Živadinović Grgur, who are not only authors but the only performers of the show (if we do not count the audience), proceed with presenting us their research process and the information and questions they choose to incorporate into the show.
There are many fascinating questions to ask about Manning’s life. But according to the authors’ research ahead of the creative process, one of the most common questions in Serbia was, “Who is she?” The creative duo surveyed citizens to find out what they thought about Manning. It turned out that unlike Assange and Snowden, well-known media personalities in Serbia, she is far less known in the country’s public landscape. The authors do not hesitate to ask the audience about this discrepancy – why does a large proportion of Serbian citizens not know who she is? This is just one of the many points where the audience is openly invited to discuss Manning’s life and choices, making each performance of the show different and subject to the audience’s will to become part of the show themselves.

We Are Going to Make Something about War, Gender and Liberty, It Will Be Titled: What Would Chelsea Say
The citizens they interviewed who did know who Manning was had very different and often contradictory opinions about her. Although most of them were positive and saw Manning as a hero for exposing US imperialism and accepting prison and torture for it, some thought she was a naïve freak who just wanted attention (many of these comments were transphobic). What Would Chelsea Say again asks us to comment on these opinions, extending the survey in a non-formal way through the performance.
What Would Chelsea Say can perhaps be most aptly described as a forum that uses theatre techniques to achieve its goal. It is not only about Manning’s life and motivations, but also about issues of imperialism, the “war on terror”,” national security, dissidence, civil rights violations, and transgender identity. The question of whether Manning’s gender reassignment was related to her decision to expose war crimes is frequently raised. Even though the authors cite Manning’s writings that the two are in no way connected, there remains a reasonable doubt that suggests otherwise. There are no clear answers to almost all of the questions posed during the performance. They are left hanging in the air, with the intention that the audience will continue to ponder them.
What Would Chelsea Say contains elements of forum theatre, Augusto Boal’s technique of the ‘theatre of the oppressed.’ Although the performance does not belong to this genre, it is inspired by it, which becomes clear towards the end when the spectators become “spect-actors” and take turns playing the role of Chelsea. They are asked personal and political questions previously written by other audience members and addressed to Manning. This can be interpreted as an attempt for the audience to more empathetically identify with the problems of the subject of the show.
After the show, one gets the feeling that it is primarily an educational piece to shed light on one of the most important whistleblower figures of the 21st century, as most people in Serbia know nothing about her. It also feels like we left a modern interactive classroom where we learned the basic information about Chelsea Manning, while all the unanswered questions that came up during the show are our homework; to be completed for some next time that may never come.
Credits:
Authors: Irena Ristić and Đorđe Živadinović Grgur //Stage, Costume and Design: Škart kolektiv//Video: Olga Košarić //Sound: Antonio Andrić //Scale Models:
Katarina Gavrilović, Boško Zdravković and Vera Petronijević
For more information, visit: festival.bitef.rs
Borisav Matić is a critic and dramaturg from Serbia. He is the Regional Managing Editor at The Theatre Times. He regularly writes about theatre for a range of publications and media.
He’s a member of the feminist collective Rebel Readers with whom he co-edits Bookvica, their platform for literary criticism, and produces literary shows and podcasts. He occasionally works as a dramaturg or a scriptwriter for theatre, TV, radio and other media. He's the administrator of IDEA - the International Drama/Theatre and Education Association.