A conversation

On the occasion of the RJ WEEK 2015, which coincided with the 15th anniversary of the European Forum of Restorative Justice (EFRJ), we organised several activities in Leuven including a theatre performance on RJ entitled ‘A Conversation’. Two years after, this theatre play turned into a film, which was launched during the RJ WEEK 2017. 

The EFRJ received funding from the Ministry of Justice of Catalonia (represented by Marc Ceron Riera, former member of the Criminal Justice Platform Europe), the Ministry of Public Administration and Justice of the Basque country (represented by Roberto Moreno Alvarez) and the European Commission through a grant to the EFRJ.

Thanks to the voluntary commitment of the EFRJ membership, the film is subtitled in 16 languages. These 14 languages are available on the DVDs: Albanian ٠ Croatian ٠ Dutch ٠ English ٠ French ٠ German ٠ Greek ٠ Hebrew ٠ Hungarian ٠ Italian ٠ Nepali ٠ Portuguese ٠ Russian ٠ Spanish. Additional 2 languages are available on the Vimeo channel: Bulgaria ٠ Polish.

No Theatre is a non-profit community theatre group based in Oslo, Norway with non-professional actors from all over the world, i.e. Norway, Spain, Germany, UK, Belgium and with a director from the UK. They all have other jobs, but they are very committed in playing ‘A Conversation’ since 6 years: they believe, really and passionately, about the subject of their play and they have been inspired to see that it had such a powerful effect on the audience so far. They sincerely hope that their play can help influence the approach of the criminal justice system to reconciliation and ultimately that the power of dialogue is recognised as a key factor in facilitating reconciliation and forgiveness after a crime has been committed.

‘A Conversation’ is a play written by the Australian playwright David Williamson. It was developed in close collaboration with John McDonald, a leading expert in the field of community conferencing (a method for reconciliation in criminal justice), which is also one of the subjects in the play. The play and the performance itself is a powerful example of the transformative power of dialogue for people affected by crime and trauma. It shows how conflict can be reduced through mediation between perpetrators and victims. It is not an easy play to watch, or to perform. ‘A Conversation’ is an important contribution to the ongoing discourse on restorative justice.

• Plot keywords: theatre; restorative justice; crime; rape; homicide; community conferencing; true story; victim; perpetrator; family; encounter; dialogue; reconciliation.
• Genre: Drama
• Date of release: November 2017 (international RJ WEEK)
• Length: 1h 22min
• Audio: English (please note that the actors are from different countries and the English is spoken with different accents)
• Subtitles: Albanian ٠ Croatian ٠ Dutch ٠ English ٠ French ٠ German ٠ Greek ٠ Hebrew ٠ Hungarian ٠ Italian ٠ Nepali ٠ Portuguese ٠ Russian ٠ Spanish
• Director: Peter Harris & Oddbjørn Austevik. Writer: David Williamson. Theatre coordinator: Siw Risøy.
• Cast: click here to know more about all actors!
• This is a film of a play, and not a movie in its own right. In other words the script and the performance is directed to a live audience, hence might be perceived differently on video. Also, all the actors have performed the play live at several occasions, but most of them have never performed in a film.

‘A Conversation is a really powerful play. The first time I saw it, I was hit in the stomach. It was raw, it was naked. It was not like anything else I had seen before.’ Mona Mathisen, youth coordinator, The Norwegian Mediation Centre

‘Having myself worked for some years with similar processes of conflict management, I find [A Conversation] to be the best and the most realistic representation of such a process.’ Espen Foss, Advisor, Street mediation, Norwegian Red Cross