Forum Theatre: What is it and how does it work?

Forum Theatre pushes past the boundaries of conventional theatre to form a unique, challenging and participatory experience. Through its inclusion of thought provoking material, often based on real life events, Forum Theatre has become an excellent way to demonstrate the therapeutic benefits of drama and how these can be used as an aid personal development.

Forum Theatre works on the main principles that…….

“The only person you can change is yourself”

And that other people are,

“Doing the best they can with the knowledge they have”

How it works!!

In Forumming, an individual child will tell the group of a particular problem he has recently encountered, for example he has been bullied. The child will then become the “Director” of his own real life play. He picks several other students to “Act out” the event that has happened to him and will advise them on things like; the characters body language, what they said, their tone of voice etc and will make all attempts to make the “scene” as true to life as possible.

This allows the “victim” child to become much more objective about his problem and enables him to see it from a different perspective. It can also be silly and fun, (With the use of wigs and props etc), and can help to disperse any feelings of tension and anger surrounding the problem. It is a great creative outlet for self expression and pent up feelings.

The scene will then be played out with the rest of the group observing. After this there is a discussion. This usually takes the form of the children analysing what has happened and why. They often talk about the “characters’ motives and feelings or why they thought that the incident occurred. They will also tend to bring up similar circumstances in which they were involved.

This is a great way for children to develop their analytical and problem solving skills. They start to think about the issue laterally and from different viewpoints and perspectives, they assess the circumstances involved. It also promotes group unity and shared feelings. The “Victim” child starts to feel that he is not alone.

Once the discussion stage has been exhausted, I give the children the opportunity to question the characters on their decisions and choices within the play.

By questioning the characters, the audience are actually questioning themselves; their beliefs, fears, choices or past decisions. But in this case they get to be the strong one, the one with the answers for how the character can get through this difficult time. By offering advice to the character, they are in fact, voicing out loud advice to themselves. They can also “Have a go” at certain characters who they feel are acting unfairly. They can say things to the character that they have found hard to say in real life to their mum, or the bully for example. It’s a great way to let out aggression and a great way to practice for real life!!!!

Then the forumming process begins. I ask the children HOW the victim child could have handled things differently to avoid such a horrible outcome, (Reminding the children all the time that we cannot change any of the other characters’ behaviour, only the victim child’s reactions and responses- as it is in real life- we can’t change anyone but ourselves. Forum is all about forgoing the blaming of others and taking responsibility for your part in the process.) The play is then run again but this time the audience is in control!! They are encouraged to stop the action at any time to comment on or discuss the way the “victim” child could have handled things better or made a different choice to avoid the final outcome. The watching children invariably come up with different suggestions, ideas and opinions (Stand up to him, go and get a teacher, hit him back) and we then try them all out one by one, even to the extent that the audience members can get up and have a go at acting themselves! The “characters” on stage remain in role as far as possible to provide an authentic response and we act out the various different scenarios to see if we can find a strategy that will provide a “Happy Ending”. Some ideas are clearly bad, (Hit him back) but the children are able to see this through the showing on stage of the consequences of these types of actions.

Having this kind of control over the action promotes amazing levels of empowerment within the audience members. It also gives everyone in the room the chance to “try out” various ways of handling difficult situations in a safe environment, before attempting to venture out into the “real world” with their new found strategies. It also hones their keeping safe and coping skills. Again, group unity is promoted through mutual understanding and group problem solving. Forum Theatre is a wonderful bonding exercise and uses several of the multiple intelligences, (Please ask to see Scapegoats Methodology for further details on this)

Nothing makes a child feel more helpless, worthless and useless than the feeling that they have absolutely no control over what happens to them in their life. This complete feeling of disempowerment can lead onto Low Self esteem, a devil may care attitude, rudeness or destructive behaviour…..the list goes on and on. Forumming gives them that semblance of control that they seek and with control comes Self discipline, pride in themselves and a desire to be a better person.