Being Human Festival 2024 (warwick.ac.uk)

Photography and Freedom workshops at Portchester Castle, Saturday 16th November 2024

The prisoner-of-war theatre, Portchester Castle

Since 2013, Kate Astbury has been working with English Heritage at Portchester Castle on the Napoleonic prisoner-of-war theatre. She advised on the reinterpretation of the space when a new permanent exhibition was installed in 2017 and has worked with two theatre companies, Past Pleasures (2017), and Southsea Shakespeare Actors (2022) to stage plays by the prisoners.

A BBC South piece on the performance of the prisoners' melodrama Roseliska in 2017 can be watched on YouTube: Dr Katherine Astbury discusses the lives of Napoleonic prisoners - BBC South Today - YouTube

|Les Murs sont témoins | These Walls Bear Witness|

Kate's research, and that of Abigail Coppins, was used as the basis for a sound installation by internationally renowned artist Elaine Mitchener MBE entitled |Les Murs sont témoins | These Walls Bear Witness| in 2019. Elaine used the names of the Black prisoners of war from the entry registers, extracts from a French prisoner of war play about the Revolution in Haiti and the sounds of Portchester and the Caribbean to give visitors an opportunity to think about what the castle was like at the time the prisoners of war were held there. Elaine's sound installation and in particular its subversion of the French play was the starting point for Kate for a new project with the National Youth Theatre. Elaine was part of the R&D phase of that project.

A Warwick Arts Faculty at home video recorded by Kate Astbury about the project with the National Youth Theatre can be seen here: Film 26: Freedom and Revolution - YouTube

The Caribbean prisoners of war at Portchester Castle

Since 2002, Abigail Coppins, currently a PhD student being supervised by Kate Astbury, has been painstakingly uncovering details of the lives of the 2500 prisoners of war from the Caribbean brought to the UK during the French Revolutionary wars. Abigail is a public historian and archaeologist who has worked as a curator and researcher for English Heritage and has produced exhibitions at Portchester Castle and Stonehenge. She co-curated the award-winning permanent exhibition at Portchester Castle about the Black prisoners of war (2017) and her work was the basis for a sound installation in the keep by internationally renowned artist Elaine Mitchener MBE entitled |Les Murs sont témoins | These Walls Bear Witness| which brought together her research into the Caribbean prisoners and Kate Astbury's research into the prisoner-of-war theatre of the Napoleonic period (2019).

The Ancestors

Kate and Abigail's research underpinned a collaboration with the English Heritage Shout out Loud and the National Youth Theatre, with funding from the AHRC. The Freedom and Revolution project culminated in a Google arts series of monologues from the R&D phase (see here: The Ancestors: Telling the Story of Freedom and Revolution — Google Arts & Culture ) and an on-site staging of a new play about the women revolutionaries of St Lucia and St Vincent brought to Britain as prisoners of war in 1796,

The Ancestors, by Lakesha Arie Angelo (2021) was published by Methuen and a screening of the play has toured the UK. The trailer can be seen here: https://vimeo.com/783688140/43c825259aLink opens in a new window

The World Reimagined

Abigail's research also provided the inspiration for a globe made by artist Fiona Compton to mark the launch of the World Reimagined charity. The prisoners from the Caribbean are commemorated on a globe that went on display in Hackney from 13th August 2022.

French theatre of the Consulate 1799-1804

Paola Perazzolo has been working with Kate Astbury with funding from the EU's Horizon 2020 Marie Curie fellowship scheme to prepare a calendar of performances for Paris for the early year's of Napoleon's time in power. You can read more here: Theatre of the Revolution and Empire (warwick.ac.uk)

Revolutionary Vincentians

For the last 3 years, Kate has been co-producing research with SV2G) St Vincent and the Grenadines Second Generation, upskilling members to tell the story of St Vincent in the late 18th century. A banner exhibition will go on tour shortly and a website to share documents from the archives is under construction. You can see a video of the initial benefits of their collaboration here: Why Collaborate: Part One (youtube.com)

During the summer of 2024, Kate hosted 3 teachers from St Vincent and the Grenadines and Jacqueline Roberts from SV2G to co-develop teaching resources to be used in the Caribbean to explore the story of the Revolutionary wars.

War and Resistance in the Caribbean: the monuments at St Paul's cathedral

Since July 2023, Kate has been working on a collaborative project at St Paul's cathedral with members of SV2G to shift the focus away from the British military to the local populations in the Caribbean when telling the story of the Revolutionary wars between Britain and France.