Theatre for Development Theatre as Development

Abstract

This paper will chart, via theoretical, ethical and aesthetic perspectives, a journey from Theatre for Development to Theatre as Development. It will explore the relationship between Development and Applied Theatre through a critique of instrumentalist approaches to Applied Theatre and an assessment of the developmental possibilities contained within an aesthetic that highlights contradictions over solutions and playfulness over measurable outcomes. Consideration will be given to the ethics as well as the poetics of social intervention.There will be a brief look at the history of drama in the context of development agencies with a focus upon different understandings of the notions of participation and empowerment. Can revolutions be rehearsed? Is their performance always an anti-climax?As the most widely practised form of Applied Theatre, particular attention will be paid to the politics and poetics of Forum Theatre; to issues it raises about the relation of democracy to art, to contradictions within the function of the Joker and to the ethics of ‘oppression’.In conclusion, the paper will attempt an interrogation of the paradox that the less overtly developmental the intervention, the more effective it may be in producing active social agency and sustainable social change among its participants.