Forum theatre

What is it? Forum theatre is a type of theatre sometimes called "Theatre of the Oppressed“. Created for teaching people how to change their world. In this process the actors or audience members could stop a performance, often a short scene in which a character was being oppressed in some way. The audience would suggest different actions for the actors to carry out on-stage in an attempt to change the outcome of what they were seeing.

Translation.Preparation. „Good morning/evening! You are here to watch one interesting performance happening on the stage. My name is... and my role in this play is to be a Joker. We have actors from Estonia acting on the stage. They have roles on the stage but in real life they are:...“ „On the stage they play...“

During the play The play starts and ends when Joker claps his hands.

After 1st play Joker asks the public: „What did you see? What happened? How did you understand it?“ „Now we have a chance to ask every character a question.“ The aim of the question is to get to know the characters and find out why they behaved the way they did. Public asks questions but characters will answer to Joker, who will rephrase the question and/or translate

Next „We got to know the characters. Why did they act that way? How did they feel? But the main question is, who you feel most sorry for?“ /voting will be held. Every member of the public can vote only once and the character who gets most of the votes „wins“. The aim is that the public would feel most sorry for the character who is bullied in the play/

„You chose that you feel most sorry for.... The reality though is that we can only change our own behaviour. Because of that we can only choose the way... acts. Do you have any ideas what she should change to change the situation?“

/public gives suggestions, something like „she should walk with straight back“, „she should be more secure. Actors will take it into consideration and will change the way they act./

/at one point the Joker asks whether everr yone feels they would like to step in and take the place of the bullied one and see how they would act in this situation/ /the situation is replayed until public feels that the situation has been completely solved/

The End „I am happy to see that we managed to help... in this tough situation. Let’s see who were on the stage...“ „And who they are in the real life...“ „Thank you a lot for watching. Thank you a lot for participation.“