Title: “This is Father Berrigan Speaking from the Underground”: Daniel Berrigan SJ and the Conception of a Radical Theatre Author Name: Benjamin Halligan Affiliation: University of Wolverhampton Postal address: Dr Benjamin Halligan Director of the Doctoral College Research Hub - MD150g, Harrison Learning Centre City Campus South, University of Wolverhampton Wulfruna Street, Wolverhampton WV1 1LY United Kingdom
[email protected] 01902 322127 / 07825 871633 Abstract: The letter “Father Berrigan Speaks to the Actors from Underground” suggests the conception of a radical theatre, intended as a contribution to a cultural front against the US government during a time of the escalation of the war in Vietnam. The letter was prepared further to Berrigan’s dramatization of the trial in which he and fellow anti-war activists were arraigned for their public burning of draft cards in 1968. The play was The Trial of the Catonsville Nine and its production coincided with a period in which Berrigan, declining to submit to imprisonment, continued his ministry while a fugitive. Keywords: Daniel Berrigan, underground, Jesuit, Catonsville, anti-war, theatre, counterculture, spirituality, activism, Living Theatre. Biographical note: Dr Benjamin Halligan is Director of the Doctoral College of the University of Wolverhampton. Publications include Michael Reeves (Manchester UP, 2003), Desires for Reality: Radicalism and Revolution in Western European Film (Berghahn, 2016), and the co-edited collections Mark E. Smith and The Fall: Art, Music and Politics (Ashgate, 2010), Reverberations: The Philosophy, Aesthetics and Politics of Noise (Continuum, 2012), Resonances: Noise and Contemporary Music (Bloomsbury Academic, 2013), The Music Documentary: Acid Rock to Electropop (Routledge, 2013), and The Arena Concert: Music, Media and Mass Entertainment (Bloomsbury Academic, 2015).