The years 2014 to 2018 witnessed the centenary of the First World War, commemorated around different cities and other locations around the world. In the United Kingdom, public centenary commemorations were funded by the Tory government, Heritage Lottery Fund, and private and corporate donors with an overall budget of over fifty million pounds, including the cultural programme 14–18 NOW that encompassed television documentaries, educational programmes, art exhibitions, theatre, and dance performances. 2016 was also the year of the divisive Brexit referendum, when Leave voters won by a small margin to end Britain’s membership of the European Union. As Britain sought to redefine its global political role, artists devised a set of suggestive transcultural acts of remembrance to spur public debate about the colonial past and current resurging nationalism. This article discusses three important theatrical events commissioned by 14–18 NOW: Paul Cummins and Tom Piper’s Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red (2014), Akram Khan’s XENOS (2018), and William Kentridge’s The Head & the Load (2018). Each theatrical event refocused awareness regarding long-standing crises of identity conflicts at the heart of Britain’s contemporary politics, pointing towards an uncertain national future. Sabine Sörgel was Senior Lecturer in Dance and Theatre at the University of Surrey (2013–2019) and is now an independent scholar, writer, and dramaturge. Her most recent book is African Contemporary Dance Theatre: Phenomenology, Whiteness, and the Gaze (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020).

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罂粟、绳索和皮影戏：英国脱欧期间第一次世界大战的跨文化记忆

2014 年至 2018 年见证了第一次世界大战一百周年，在世界各地的不同城市和其他地方举行了纪念活动。在英国，公共百年纪念活动由保守党政府、遗产彩票基金以及私人和企业捐助者资助，总预算超过 5000 万英镑，其中包括文化节目 14-18 NOW，其中包括电视纪录片、教育节目、艺术展览、戏剧和舞蹈表演。2016 年也是分裂性的英国退欧公投之年，当时脱欧选民以微弱优势赢得了英国退出欧盟的资格。当英国试图重新定义其全球政治角色时，艺术家们设计了一系列具有启发性的跨文化纪念活动，以激发公众对殖民历史和当前复兴的民族主义的辩论。本文讨论了 14-18 NOW 委托的三场重要戏剧活动：保罗·康明斯和汤姆·派珀的血染红海(2014), 阿克拉姆汗的异形（2018 年）和威廉·肯特里奇的头部与负载（2018 年）。每场戏剧活动都重新关注英国当代政治中心长期存在的身份冲突危机，指向一个不确定的国家未来。Sabine Sörgel 曾任萨里大学舞蹈与戏剧高级讲师（2013-2019 年），现为独立学者、作家和戏剧家。她最近的一本书是非洲当代舞蹈剧院：现象学、白度和凝视（帕尔格雷夫麦克米伦，2020）。