Do people from Northern Ireland have a right to be happy?

In his book The Conquest of Happiness, published in 1930, the distinguished logician, philosopher, pacifist and social critic Bertrand Russell argues the possibility that the greatest obstacle to happiness is what he calls "the disease of self-absorption". He believed that his own personal conquest of happiness had been brought about by diminishing his preoccupation with himself, maintaining that ego can play no significant part in the affairs of the wider world.

The book was intended for consumption not by academics and philosophers but by ordinary people. This spirit of accessibility and sharing with the wider world forms the vein of truth running through a thrilling new multimedia performance, which had its premiere at Ebrington Barracks in Derry in September. The piece, commissioned by the Culture Company as part of the Derry UK City of Culture celebrations last year, contextualises Russell’s writing against horrific acts of violence of the 20th and 21st centuries.

The audience moves through and becomes an integral part of a series of fully formed dramas, which powerfully recreate real-life atrocities from modern times: the killing fields of Cambodia, the My Lai massacre, Bloody Sunday, the destruction of Palestinian homes by Israeli settlers, the state-organised torture and murder of Chilean musician and political activist Victor Jara, the Holocaust and more. The horrors unfold in a vast space enclosed by military vehicles and watchtowers, illuminated by blinding searchlights. Under the guiding presence of Russell himself – played by Cornelius Macarthy, an actor from Sierra Leone – they expose not only man's inhumanity to man but also the human capacity for endurance, generosity and happiness in even the most desperate of circumstances.

Made in Bosnia and Belfast
The driving force is the highly respected Bosnian director Haris Pasovic, who has formed a partnership with Emma Jordan, artistic director of Belfast's Prime Cut Productions. The piece features a cast of actors from Ireland, Slovenia, Bosnia, Belgium, Sierra Leone and the UK, and is a co-production between Prime Cut; Pasovic's company East West Theatre Company, based in Bosnia-Herzegovina; and Theatre Mladinsko, Slovenia.

“We were directed in our work by Russell, and inspired by the wonderful words of one of the most intelligent minds of the 20th century,” says Pasovic. “Russell was Everyman to all of us. In this book, he wrote about the most fundamental issue in anyone’s life – the issue of happiness, a subject which had rarely before been discussed in a serious or philosophical way.

“The motto of our show is a direct quote from him: ‘The secret of happiness is to face the fact that the world is horrible, horrible, horrible.’ I don’t think he repeated any other word three times in all of his writings.

“We are asking a simple question, which required deep research: do people from Northern Ireland or Bosnia have a right to be happy? The US Declaration of Independence enshrines the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Alas, that is not the case everywhere in the world.”

Research for the piece has taken the creative team to Sarajevo, Mostar and Zenica in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Since its Derry opening, the piece has toured to Rijeka in Croatia, Ljubljana in Slovenia, Novi Sad in Serbia, completing the circle with a performance beneath Mostar Bridge, which was bombed during the Bosnian war and rebuilt as a symbol of unity and beauty.

Events took a bizarre turn when Jordan and three of the cast were arrested at Belfast City Airport en route to Bosnia. An airport scanner picked up 12 live bullets sewn into the lining of a jacket, which was part of a costume worn on set. It had been bought, sight unseen, on an online shopping site.

After their eventual release, the four reflected on this example of life imitating art: “There’s no escaping the irony of a company of anti-war artists touring with a show of this kind and being arrested for possession of ammunition.”

The performance at Mostar was of personal significance to Pasovic, who continued to make challenging theatre in his native city of Sarajevo throughout the dark days of its siege, in the fervent belief that artists can offer more possibilities for reconciliation than politicians.

“Derry and Mostar are sister cities,” he says. “Both are very beautiful, both have a complex history and have different communities living on opposite sides of a river. Integration has been slow and painful in both places, but in Northern Ireland you are doing fantastically well with your peace process.

“This has been an inspiring experience for us all. Prime Cut has reached out to Europe. Ours is a real partnership in that we want to exchange and interact in a European landscape. The 21st century is significantly different from the 20th century. The old models will not hold any more. More and more we are one people on Earth. We need to share our problems.

“My company, East West, was founded on the premise that people need to group together and not be xenophobic, parochial or provincial.

"These days, the media and the politicians decide on what are the important issues. War and peace-making, human rights, humanitarian issues have become industries, but nobody looks closely at human greed, at the arms industry and the manufacture of landmines. Art has to take a wider view. The problems of Ireland are my problems too."

The Conquest of Happiness will be performed on October 25 and 26 at T13 in the Titanic Quarter during the Belfast Festival at Queen's. belfastfestival.com

Highlights: Belfast Festival at Queen's
As the Belfast Festival at Queen's enters its sixth decade, it has a new director with a wide international vision. Richard Wakely has searched far and wide for what he calls "great works of art from home and abroad . . . bringing audiences something that they cannot see elsewhere".

The motto of this year’s event is Passport to the Arts, and, with a line-up of artists from Cuba, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, China, the US, Belgium, Brazil, Poland, Switzerland, the Basque region and France, one can see where he’s coming from.

The festival’s artist-in-residence is Cuban-American Jorge Rodríguez-Gerada. He is famous for large-scale work in urban spaces and has enlisted local volunteers and community groups to create Wish, a spectacular piece of land art in the city’s rapidly evolving Titanic Quarter.

A weekend of top-quality dance includes two Ireland and UK premieres and a world premiere by Belfast-based Maiden Voyage in The Mac and the Ulster Museum. On 18th and 19th, Sol Picó Cia de Danza from Spain will perform the Ireland and UK premiere of Memòries d’una Puça . On the same nights, a tender father-son relationship is explored in the Belgian piece Victor.

The Spectrum Centre on the Shankill Road will be the venue for Crimea Square, a multimedia theatrical presentation based on local characters and events. Belfast company Kabosh has commissioned Belfast by Moonlight, a new play by Carlo Gébler, to be staged in the atmospheric surroundings of St George’s Church.

The most perilous event of the programme is Rob Drummond’s Bullet Catch, which focuses on a stunt so dangerous that even Houdini refused to attempt it. In this, its Irish premiere, it challenges audience members to hold their nerve and to stay on for its notorious finale.

The festival runs today until October 27. Bookings on belfastfestival.com, 0044-28-90971197