Act Out

Boal theatre techniques have conventionally been used to work with people that are struggling with certain obstacles, blocked or disenfranchised in some way. This may be through an external influence or by an internalised belief that limits action.

The aim is to bring the participants into a space where they can explore, identify and rehearse alternative ways to deal with the issue. This is done not solely through cognitive learning but through a learning that encompasses a range of intelligences including kinaesthetic, emotional, sensory and intuitive. With all these involved in the process the individual has the opportunity to reach into his or her highest creative potential to find directions and possibilities.

With this premise in mind, there a few practitioners who ask, if this is true for people who are experiencing injustice or exclusion, could it not be true for the wrong-doers; the offenders; the ‘oppressors’?

Act Out’s work at Communicare’s Breathing Space with men who have been violent to their partners and families exemplifies the important complimentary role these techniques can have in bringing awareness of

their behaviour to perpetrators of domestic violence. For some of the men, seeing and acting out the scenarios suggested by the other men, raised some awareness:

‘There were a few times when … somebody’s acted something and you sat there and watched and thought well, I used to do the same thing, so it opens your eyes up to actually sit there and think…some of the boys say that half the shit they’ve never done, you know what I mean? But if you sit down and watch the looks on their face when it gets acted out and you can see that somewhere along the line they’ve done it and they just don’t want to admit to it…’

Another participant explained:

 ‘I never saw it as abuse that sort of stuff, even like the way I talk and that, when I sit back and watch everyone else do it , I say f—, it’s like…I never thought of that as abuse’

While there are many layers to the issue of DV of which behaviour is only one, engaging the men in an honest introspection and allowing them to rehearse non-violent actions which they have identified, creates a strong platform for transformation.

Similarly, when working for the Department for Corrective Services with young offenders in juvenile detention and remand centres, engagement constitutes a large part of the Act Out process.

Some young detainees have been excluded so much in their lives that they don’t really feel they have anything to contribute. Boal and other techniques engage them in a creative space that separates them from their behaviour and allows them to express themselves without being judged.

They are then able to explore the painful AND the positive in their lives; the dynamics and the influences that have got them into trouble and the potential for non-offending behaviour. They are able to access their deeper knowledge of ALL they are capable of being.

 

 

 

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