About

Theatre of War

In 1982, Argentina and UK fought the Malvinas Falklands War. The war ended with the British military victory and took about 1000 lives, both British and Argentinean. While the conflict took place years ago, the sovereignty of the islands is still in dispute.

Theatre of War, directed by Lola Arias, tells the story of how six veterans from the Malvinas/ Falklands War came together to make a film. Almost thirty-five years after the conflict, three British and three Argentine veterans spent months together discussing their war memories and then rehearsing their re-enactment.

This film is a way of showing the whole social experiment of making an artistic project with one-time enemies of war: the auditions to find the protagonists, the first meetings and discussions with them, the theatrical re-enactments of their memories in different scenarios: a swimming pool, a construction site, a military regiment. All the scenes in the film are at the same time authentic and artificial. Sometimes it looks like it’s happening for the first time, sometimes it’s a highly rehearsed situation.

The film playfully switches between reality and fiction, spontaneity and acting. It explores how to transform a soldier into an actor, how to turn war experiences into a story, how to show the collateral effects of war. The movie brings together former enemies to perform their wartime and post-war nightmares.

For fans of MINEFIELD which ran in our venue in 2017.

Professor Lucy Robinson (University of Sussex) will introduce the film. She is Professor of Collaborative History at the University of Sussex. Her book Gay Men and the Left in post-war Britain: how the personal became political was first published by MUP in 2007. Since then she has worked on charity singles, music videos, zine cultures, digital memory, protest , pedagogy and the politics of popular culture. She has produced a number of publications looking at the role of soldier's stories about the Falklands War in our understanding of war and trauma. As well as co-ordinating the Subcultures Network, and the open access digital project Observing the 80s, she has recently advised on an exhibition on Jersey in the 1980s, a theatrical interpretation of Derek Jarman’s film Jubilee, and on a documentary project funded by the BFI, Queerama.

Contains scenes of an adult nature.

Part of CINEMA CLUB.

Join us for a weekly expanded cinema experience this season each Sunday, including a film accompanied a programme of shorts, installations, music and discussion & debate as well as a delicious brunch menu in our café-bar.

2pm: café-bar open and venue events begin

4pm: feature film starts

General Information

Access

The following access tickets can be booked online: spaces for wheelchair users, seats with flat floor access, best seats for sightlines of captions / BSL interpretation (when applicable). For guidance about online booking and for further information about accessibility at the venue see our Access page here.

If you have access requirements that you would like to discuss with us or would like to book a ticket for a Personal Assistant please contact the box office on 01273 678 822 or email boxoffice@attenboroughcentre.com.

Concessions

The concession rate is available for students, University of Sussex staff, Over 60s, and people in receipt of JSA or DLA/PIP. Proof of eligibility may be required on the door or at the box office (if collecting). Personal assistance tickets are available for free for customers who would otherwise be unable to attend the venue. Please contact the box office on 01273 678822 or email boxoffice@attenboroughcentre.com for further information.

Box Office Opening Times

The box office (phone line and drop-in service) is open from 10am to 4pm, Mondays to Fridays. The box office is also open one hour before the advertised show start time.