Forum Theatre is a way of bringing to light situations in which we feel (or have felt) that our capacity is being restricted or attacked by external forces – as an individual and as a community.  We do this not so much for therapeutic proposes, but to develop practical strategies together for overcoming these oppressions.

Through discreet and democratic means scenarios of oppression are created with a group and staged and performed as a play. Unlike most other plays, these stories, reflecting reality more often than not, end without a resolution. The audience is usually from a community likely to identify with the predicaments depicted in the story. 

The play is performed twice and on the second time, the audience members are invited to shout stop and to replace the character/s with whom they identify and show what they would do in such a situation.  The aim is to share and rehearse strategies to resist and overcome oppression.

A workshop, which can be from one day to five days long, will take participants through the process of exploring personal and common experiences of oppression and developing a short forum piece that will be performed to a public audience.  The participant at the end will have a good understanding of the basic principals of Forum Theatre, and working knowledge of how to devise a Forum Theatre piece.

A training, which is a minimum of three to five days, will give people some of the meta-knowledge required to be able to facilitate Forum Theatre workshops.