Led by Dr Karen McGuigan and Áine Brady from QCAP, along with our partners in the MDA, the ‘Market Stories’ project has involved working with the Market community over the last 3 months to explore stories about life in the Market to inform the creation of a play that will be staged in the Waterfront Hall in May 2025. The Market stories project has now reached the halfway point. So far, Market residents have taken part in 6 story telling sessions documenting life across the community and are now working with the project team to create a play based on their experiences.

 

“The ‘Market Stories’ project has seen the use of storytelling workshops, conducted with Market residents, to inform the related play which will be staged in the Waterfront Hall in Belfast later this year. The participatory, co-designed, storytelling workshops have served as a mechanism to explore the experiences and stories that the community want to share, the outcomes and aspirations that matter most in relation to tackling substance use, trauma and improving wellbeing”.

Áine Brady (QCAP Local Co-ordinator)

 

As it continues, this multi-layered research project will see the inclusion of drama, song and documentary. The documentary will see the ‘real-time’ filming of: the story-telling process in the workshops; the development of the play shaped from the community stories; rehearsals; and staging of the play. The filmed content will be edited to form: a documentary reflecting how communities can use arts-based methods to tackle complex issues; a filmed version of the play amplifying community voices and lived experiences; and associated educational packages.

“This project builds on the success of our recent AHRC Creative Communities funded research which utilised poetry, drama, creative writing and photography to help: break cycles of silence which perpetuate poor health outcomes in communities; bring about change in social dynamics of the community; and more widely, break the barriers of societal silence surrounding important, stigmatised topics. This ‘Market Stories’ project seeks to unpack the complex connections between deprivation, trauma, substance use and wellbeing in Northern Ireland.”

Dr Karen McGuigan (QCAP lead for Community Health and Wellbeing)

 

The project  also sees collaboration with successful screenplay writer and playwright, Pearse Elliott; arts-facilitator, Matt Faris (Funky Buddha Productions); film-maker, Martin Keenan (Bayview Media); and Irish folk band and songwriters, Onóir. The project has received funding support from National Lottery’s ‘Award’s for All’ programme and the AHRC Impact Acceleration Account at Queen's University.