Theatre for Development - Integrated communication, HIV/AIDS

"Theatre for Development has developed a bit of a bad name and has been used as a one-way message system," said Alex Mavrocordatos, of King Alfred’s College Winchester, at an Exchange lunchtime discussion on 1 July 2003.

But it doesn't have to be that way. Mavrocordatos believes theatre is a cultural means of communication that can promote development and enable a community to work together. Theatre for Development "should not be top-down", he said. "Behaviour change is a cultural issue and we have to engage with the culture."

Individuals or communities who have a strong sense of identity are ideally placed to use theatre to analyse and change their situation. Participatory performance practices (PPP), such as improvisation, help to stimulate dialogue and draw out research. This enables people to work towards a performance, which can form an integral part of a community development initiative.

PPP allows artists within the community to tell their own story, highlight their concerns and develop strategies - these can involve themselves, their neighbours or powerful policy makers from the wider world. At the same time, the outside facilitators or artists can weave their research outcomes into the performance.

Alex Mavrocordatos highlighted some of the unexpected results of PPP:

Techniques such as group mapping, where participants position themselves around a group of important objects to demonstrate their relationship to each other and to the issue symbolised by the objects, can be used. This helps people to communicate about issues and relationships that otherwise might not emerge.

Theatre doesn't have to involve a long performance seen only by a select few. Some groups have developed five minute plays that are easy to perform and are repeated again and again in different settings. Feedback from different audiences helps to shape and redesign new adaptations of the play, and provides more understanding of the important issues.

One discussion participant described her work on a theatre project in Cambodia which addressed the increasing risk of HIV and AIDS, particularly among young people in rural villages. At the start of the project she found that even though villagers knew a lot about HIV and AIDS they felt unable to talk openly about it.

Comedy is one of the most popular communication forms in Cambodia. So it made sense to involve local comedians, who play a key role in their communities, in a participatory theatre project that built twenty performances around villagers' life stories. Workshops included a lot of improvisaton and role playing which helped the comedians and the villagers explore key issues around HIV and AIDS.

Officials at the ministry of health and the sponsoring organisation were sceptical at first. They thought, "villagers can’t do this, non-professionals can’t do it, it won’t be good."

A number of benefits and some surprising research came out of the project:

Audiences weren't interested in performances that simply tried to deliver a message. When the focus was on telling a story, the performance was less mechanical and more engaging. The health messages were seen as "work", while the dramatisation of a situation that threatened health was easier to understand, easier for the villagers to relate to.

Even the lowest-priced condoms were too expensive for the villagers. This key finding emerged through the discussions that accompanied the performances. Villagers said that if they were going to use condoms they would have to be cheaper. This underlines the point that changing behaviour is not a simple linear process but depends on the cultural, economic and political situation.

Gender, power and culture were acknowledged as being part of the HIV and AIDS problem for the first time. The performances created a space for dialogue and reinforced the idea that it was time to talk more openly about the factors that cause the spread of HIV.

Dave Pammenter, from the Centre for the Arts in Development Communications, highlighted the need to transform ourselves, instead of simply working to transform others. He said theatre for development is a way to sharpen the contradictions in our societies. It allows us to communicate about what we want to transform.

Listening is a critical skill for effective theatre. Pammenter said theatre for development has its roots in the best of dialogical education, which can help identify different perspectives and purposes around change. It can help us identify what we are and what we choose to become.

Participants at the Exchange lunchtime discussion shared their experience around four questions:

1. What can be done if deep conflicts or emotional traumas emerge through a theatre process?

It's important to create a safe space where people can express their feelings and allow the issues to emerge, even if they are upsetting. Sometimes shaping the trauma into a story, a dramatic portrayal, helps the individual and the group work through the issue.

2. How can an individual, village or community respond to issues that are beyond their control?

When the problem is bigger than a community can handle, theatre can raise a different level of awareness. The performance can be recorded on video and shown to policy makers. Alex Mavrocordatos gave one example from Tanzania where people dramatised their journey to the nearest hospital, which involved crossing two rivers. Showing their local perspective, and demonstrating that they wanted to improve the situation, helped political leaders to take action. But it took time for that to happen. Taking cultural action from the immediate story is the key.

3. How can you keep the health information from becoming the dull, uninteresting part of the performance?

Keeping the health information more alive means making sure that the play is about people and their relationships. Like food, you need to digest information so that it begins to nourish.

Ongoing participatory monitoring and evaluation is an integral part of theatre for development as it helps to build confidence and the capacity to analyse situations. And theatre for development itself can be used as an evaluation tool, helping to blend conventional and creative techniques.

Theatre for Development: opening up dialogue