The art of ‘tick boxes’: quantitative audience evaluation methods of documentary theatre for ‘peace’ in Northern Ireland

ABSTRACT

Because of the ambiguity surrounding defining the concept of ‘peace’, initiatives and projects that seek to engage with peacebuilding often struggle to utilise a holistic method for evaluating their success. Similarly, within the theatre sector, and in particular theatre for social change projects, methods to evaluate audience impact are messy and often unsuitable for understanding the phenomenological relationship between the performance and the audience members themselves. Indeed, the complex impact of theatre is reduced to ‘tick-boxes’ and quantitative heavy impact assessments. Therefore, when considering the impact of theatre for peace productions in Northern Ireland, the over-reliance of quantitative data hinders any attempts to understand the true effectiveness of utilising theatre for peace. This research paper critiques the overreliance of quantitative indicators within the evaluation process of theatre for peace initiatives, while also considering possible solutions that could be utilised to solve this ever-present issue.

KEYWORDS:

• Theatre
• peace
• evaluation
• quantitative
• Northern Ireland

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ Peter, ‘Measuring the Success of Peace Operations: Directions in Academic Literature’, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (2016), https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/af33/56c78c5912cfe90d3b9b3364f54b21d7e379.pdf (accessed November 14, 2021).

² Lynch, ‘Evaluating the Peace-Building Impact of Structural Funds Programmes: The EU Programme for Peace and Reconciliation’, Evaluation 13, no. 1 (2007): 8–31.

³ Hoffman, ‘Peace and Conflict Impact Assessment Methodology’, Berghof Research Center for Constructive Conflict Management (2014), http://edoc.vifapol.de/opus/volltexte/2011/2573/pdf/hoffman_handbook.pdf (accessed November 12, 2021).

⁴ Buchanan, Transforming Conflict Through Social and Economic Development (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2014), 42.

⁵ Goetze, The Distinction of Peace: The Social Analysis of Peacebuilding (Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 2017); Davenport, Melander and Regan, The Peace Continuum: What It Is and How to Study It (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018); and Klem, ‘The Problem of Peace and The Meaning of ‘Post-War’, Conflict, Security and Development 18, no. 3 (2018): 233–55.

⁶ Goetze, The Distinction of Peace: The Social Analysis of Peacebuilding (Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 2017), 16.

⁷ Ibid., 15.

⁸ Barash and Webel, Peace and Conflict Studies, 4th ed. (California: SAGE Publications, 2018).

⁹ Bush, ‘A Measure of Peace: Peace and Conflict Impact Assessment (PCIA) of Development Projects in Conflict Zones’, International Development Research Centre (1998), http://conflictsensitivity.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Measure_of_Peace.pdf (accessed November 14, 2021).

¹⁰ See note 3 above.

¹¹ See note 9 above.

¹² Mac Ginty, ‘Indicators+: A Proposal for Everyday Peace Indicators’, Evaluation and Program Planning 36, No. 1 (2013): 56–63.

¹³ Ibid.

¹⁴ Ibid., 58.

¹⁵ Ibid., 59–60.

¹⁶ Ozerdem, ‘Happiness as a Measurement and Goal of Peacebuilding’, Global Change, Peace and Security 31, no. 3 (2019): 303–22.

¹⁷ Ibid., 320.

¹⁸ Galtung, ‘Violence, Peace, and Peace Research’, Journal of Peace Research 6, no. 3 (1969): 167–91.

¹⁹ Galtung and Fischer, Johan Galtung: Pioneer of Peace Research (New York: Springer, 2013).

²⁰ Drago, ‘Peace Studies and the Peace Movement’, Peace Research 44/45, no. 1 (2013): 163–91; Kriz and Cermack, ‘Bosnia and Herzegovina between Negative and Positive Peace: View from the Local Level’, Romanian Journal of Political Science 14, no. 2 (2014): 4–36; and Chaudhuri, ‘Peace Education in a Broader Perspective’, Education Journal 4, no. 1 (2014): 6–9.

²¹ Mironova and Whitt, ‘International Peacekeeping and Positive Peace: Evidence from Kosovo’, Journal of Conflict Resolution 61, no. 10 (2015): 2074–104.

²² Bond, ‘Positive Peace and Sustainability in the Mining Context: Beyond the Triple Bottom Line’, Journal of Cleaner Production 84 (2014): 164–173, 165.

²³ See note 18 above.

²⁴ Mac Ginty, ‘The Liberal Peace at Home and Abroad: Northern Ireland and Liberal Internationalism’, The British Journal of Politics and International Relations 11 (2009): 690–708; Kurtenbach, ‘Why is Liberal Peacebuilding so Difficult? Some Lessons from Central America and Caribbean Studies’, European Review of Latin America and Caribbean 88 (2010): 95–110; and Jackson, ‘Post-Liberal Peacebuilding and the Pacifist State’, Peacebuilding 6, no. 1 (2018): 1–16.

²⁵ Weiss, ‘The Material and Models: Notes Towards a Definition of Documentary Theatre’, in Modern Theories of Drama: A Selection of Writings on Drama and Theatre, 1840–1990, ed. Brandt (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998): 247–54, 248.

²⁶ Ibid., 248.

²⁷ Lehtonene and Poyhonen, ‘Documentary Theatre as a Platform for Hope and Social Justice’, in Critical Articulations of Hope from the Margins of Arts Education: International Perspectives and Practices, ed. Anttila and Suominen (Oxfordshire: Routledge, 2019): 31–44, 32.

²⁸ Nessler, ‘Staging Truth to Invite Dialogue: Elements of Group Work in Documentary Theatre Talkbacks’, Social Work with Groups 41, no. 1–2 (2018): 34–48, 39.

²⁹ Aguiar, ‘Applied Theatre in Peacebuilding and Development’, Journal of Peacebuilding and Development 15, no. 1 (2019): 45–60.

³⁰ Harvie and Rebellato, ‘“Series Editors” Preface’, in Theatre and Politics: 25, ed. Kelleher (Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009): vii-viii, vii.

³¹ Philip Orr (playwright), in discussion with the author, January 26, 2021.

³² Reason, Documentation, Disappearance and the Representation of Live Performance (Hampshire and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006); Balfour, ‘The Politics of Intention: Looking for a Theatre of Little Changes’, RiDE: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance 14, no. 4 (2009): 347–59; Thompson, Performance Affects: Applied Theatre and the End of Effect (London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009); and Walmsley, ”A big part of my life”: a qualitative study of the impact of theatre’, Arts Marketing: An International Journal 3, no. 1 (2013): 73–87.

³³ Laurence McKeown (playwright), in discussion with author, November 11, 2020.

³⁴ Caoileann Curry-Thompson (Arts Council of Northern Ireland), in discussion with author, February 4, 2021.

³⁵ Arts Matter NI, ‘Red Alert: State of Emergency’, (2018), 2, https://www.artsmatterni.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/AMNI-WorthLess-No-Worth-More.pdf (accessed January 4, 2022).

³⁶ Meredith, ‘Cut in NI Arts Budget “Could Signal Final Blow”’, BBC News (2018), http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-42793469 (accessed September 27, 2021).

³⁷ Bell, ‘Digging Deeper: Funding Cuts and Arts Attendance in Northern Ireland’, Thrive (2019), https://wewillthrive.co.uk/resources/blogs/funding-cuts-and-arts-attendance-in-northern-ireland (accessed October 14, 2021).

³⁸ Ramsey and Waterhouse-Bradley, ‘Cultural Policy in Northern Ireland: Making Cultural Policy for a Divided Society’ in The Routledge Handbook of Global Cultural Policy, ed. Durrer, Miller and O’Brien (Abingdon: Routledge, 2018), Chp. 13, 195–212. 203.

³⁹ See note 33 above.

⁴⁰ Jennings and Baldwin, ”Filling out the Forms was a Nightmare”: Project Evaluation and the Reflective Practitioner in Community Theatre in Contemporary Northern Ireland’, Music and Arts Action 2, no. 2 (2010): 72–89. 73.

⁴¹ Edelman and Sorli, ‘Measuring the Value of Theatre for Tyneside Audiences’, Cultural Trends 24, no. 3 (2015): 232–44.

⁴² ACNI, ‘Building Peace through the Arts – Re-imagining Communities Programme 2012–2015 Executive Summary’, Arts Council of Northern Ireland (2016), 2, http://artscouncil-ni.org/news/publications-archive/g/evaluations (accessed August 6, 2021).

⁴³ Playhouse, ‘Has Taking Part in the Workshop Made you Aware of … ’, Theatre of Witness Workshop Response 2020/2021 (2021). Unpublished.

⁴⁴ Bogner and Landrock, ‘Response Biases in Standardised Surveys’, GESIS (2016), 2, https://www.gesis.org/fileadmin/upload/SDMwiki/BognerLandrock_Response_Biases_in_Standardised_Surveys.pdf (accessed November 17, 2021).

⁴⁵ Playhouse, How Worthwhile was it Hearing About the Stories? Theatre of Witness Response 2020/2021 (2021). Unpublished.

⁴⁶ Grant and Durrer, ”Living and Learning”: An Evaluation of the Playhouse Theatre and Peacebuilding Academy’, QUB (2020), 29, https://pureadmin.qub.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/222746356/PLAYHOUSE_PEACE_ACADEMY_REPORT_Final_.pdf (accessed January 13, 2021).

⁴⁷ Ibid., 27.

⁴⁸ Ibid., 29.

⁴⁹ See note 40 above.

⁵⁰ Parenteau, ‘How Do You Solve a Problem Like Documentary Theatre?’ American Theatre (2017), https://www.americantheatre.org/2017/08/22/how-do-you-solve-a-problem-like-documentary-theatre/ (accessed April 27, 2021).

⁵¹ See note 28 above, 39.

⁵² McFetridge, ‘Opening Dialogue between communities in the aftermath of conflict’ in ‘Peace and Beyond’, British Council (2018), 40, https://www.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/j063_peace_and_beyond_essays_final_web_new_0.pdf (accessed September 2, 2021).

⁵³ See note 33 above.

⁵⁴ See note 12 above.

⁵⁵ See note 12 above.

⁵⁶ See note 16 above.

⁵⁷ See note 1 above.

⁵⁸ Caplan, ‘Measuring Peace: Principles, Practices, and Politics’, Ethnopolitics 19, no. 3 (2020): 311–15.

⁵⁹ See note 4 above.

⁶⁰ See note 12 above.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Harry McCallum

Harry McCallum is a current PhD researcher at Ulster University, within the School of Applied Social and Policy Sciences. His research project examines the long-term impact of documentary theatre productions for peacebuilding in Northern Ireland through utopian performatives. After obtaining a First-Class Honours degree in Drama at Ulster University, Harry achieved a Distinction in his Masters in ‘Conflict Transformation and Social Justice’ at the George Mitchell Institute, based at Queen’s University, Belfast.