Intercultural Dialogue

For the last twenty years, I have had the great privilege to use theatre as a tool for a dynamic dialogue between communities that might otherwise be in conflict. From the Basque country to Venezuala, from Ukraine to Wales transforming monologue to dialogue has been a lifelong passion.

One of the main influences on my work, apart from theatre practitioners like Augusto Boal and Enrique Vargas, is the eminent physicist David Bohm. Whilst a mature student at Brockwood Park School he would often visit and introduce us to his theories about the Holomovement and his very particular use of the word Dialogue.

My criticism would be, though, that Bohmian Dialogue is very static and does not involve the whole body as such. That is why applying the theatre methods of The Theatre of the Oppressed, Dramatherapy and Sensory Labyrinth Theatre to the same goals as Bohmian dialogue brings about dialogue in the total language of theatre. This produces space for a quite radical transformation of consciousness of the kind Bohm would often talk about with Jiddu Krishnamurti, founder of Brockwood Park School.

As a founding member and artist working for the European network, Drums for Peace for 12 years, I had the amazing opportunity to create intercultural performances with artists and young people from very different cultures and social backgrounds. Being able to take groups of disadvantaged youth to these projects to participate was the best youth work I ever did. It was also during this period which I saw and was able to grow a practice around creative intercultural dialogue.

Austerity and Brexit put paid to a lot of this work and the initial aspiration and celebration of the diversity of all cultures, abilities, and ethnicities of the new millennium seem somehow browbeaten by the current isolationist politics.

What better reason to continue to hold a candle for the possibility of harmony between peoples.