Forum Theatre Examples
Tayco-Tanzania – “Badilika”
The play was performed in August 2013 for 113 people in Dar es Salaam (98% of them below 30 years)
The Topic of the play: Gender Discrimination Roles: Oppressor: FATHER – Mr .Rashid/ Oppressed: DAUGHTER – Mwajuma/ Ally oppressed: NEIGHBOR SISTER – Sophia/ Ally oppressor: SON-Abubakar/ Neutral: MOTHER - Mrs Rashid
At home: The father is reading the newspaper showing the aggregate statistics in recent years of girls who become school dropouts due to pregnancy. Suddenly the daughter enters with excitement telling her dad that she has been selected to go to secondary school, but father takes it as nonsense in a manner that she cannot go to school any more as she should stay home and wait for marriage. Father calls the rest of the house mates, which are mother and son, telling them that he will never allow any topic with regard to taking the girl to school in his house. The wife remains quiet out of fear to converse with her husband and the son supports his dad for such a stand, the daughter cries.
At the Well: The neighbour sister meets the daughter Mwajuma while in the process of fetching water and informs the youngster that she is going for her university studies in the capital city. She encourages the girl to study hard so that someday she can be like her but the daughter sadly tells the neighbour sister that although she has been selected for secondary school the father refuses to take her and moreover wants her home as a female nowhere to go, according to the culture of the clan. The neighbour sister feels sad about that but gives her support and promises she will come by her home before she goes to university and advise the father. She tells the daughter not to lose hope as she has the right to study like any other people in the world.
At home: The house mates relax having some evening talks all together when a knock is heard as the neighbour sister comes in and greets the parents. She has come to say goodbye because she will be leaving the village to the capital city where she has been selected to take a degree in law. The father is annoyed, the reason behind that being that he does not believe in education for girls. On top of that she insists that the father allows the daughter to go for secondary studies so that someday she can become just like her. The father wants to throw her out of the house but the conversation becomes serious, the son keeps boosting his father not to support girls, the wife trying to please the daughter and the husband at the same time. The neighbor turns to the mother and tells her that she should be wise enough to know that women need revolution and education is the way. The daughter agrees with this standing therein.
Interventions:
Scene 1
The oppressed daughter was changed with the reason of showing reality to the sense that the exact message can be delivered and bringing the sensitivity of how the oppressed daughter should appear in a real sense.
The neutral mother was changed as well, turning to the side that the mother is a confident woman and able to assist the daughter in most instances, rather than remain silent and follow everything that the oppressor says. The intention was to raise the power so the oppression can be eliminated by increasing the number of the people with strong arguments against gender discrimination.
Scene 2
The ally of the oppressed, the neighbour sister, was changed to the point that she can be in a position to reflect the actual sense of the sister in the village with concern for what exactly is happening once the elder sister spoke to the young sister. She also gives spirit to the oppressed one upon the rights of girls, just like the rights of any other people in the world.
Scene 3
Once again the ally of the oppressed was changed with the moral target of not threatening the oppressor but being in a position to converse and change the wrong perspective that the father had with facts, not with provocations. This meant mutually giving the benefit of doubt accordingly. The ally of the oppressor, the son, was also changed in a manner that he could be neutral to such a degree so as to reduce the energy of the oppressor for the sake of eliminating the oppression and being the matter of point where the very best there is can be achieved as much as the society desire to the better solutions.
Conclusions
The oppressor finally agreed that a girl has equal rights to a boy and moreover the daughter deserves to study and attain all other preferences, like all other children receive regardless of gender.
Morally, the solution was obtained without use of violence, as well as not changing the oppressor with the due concern of following and obeying the rule of the game which was clearly described by the Joker to the audience.
Ideas Factory – Bulgaria –15
“To be or not to be”
The play was performed in August for 50 people (in Sofia)
Topic of the performance: Gentrification - The place is the oldest market in Sofia, and the last one of its kind. It is also a big issue – there are several groups of people that have interest in it – to save it as it is now, or to go for reconstruction (complete change).
Roles:
-Oppressor – the municipality man, Mr Stefan Gospodinov, second director of Vazrazhdane markets.
-Oppressed – active merchant and shop-owner, who is not from Sofia, Hristo Hristov, selling shoes for more than 20 years. He has a family to support with this job.
-Ally of the oppressor – local resident (person who lives at the market), Tatiana Markova, interior designer, has kids who are in school, she is concerned about crime on the streets of the city where three generations of her family have lived.
-Ally of the oppressed – the young girl, Mariana. She has graduated from university and has a job, but she still prefers to shop at this market for its low prices and the unusual atmosphere there.
-Neutral – passive merchant, the other shop owner, Ivanka, selling fruits and vegetables. She doesn’t rely on this job to support her family and it’s just something she does to earn some extra money, though she spends a lot of time there.
-Neutral – the old lady, Mariika, who has a pension of 85 euro, lives with her daughter and her family, because she can’t survive without their support.
The usual atmosphere at the market
There are the two merchants – Ivanka (the passive one, neutral ), and Hristo, (the active one, the oppressed). Mariika the old lady is buying fruits from Ivanka; they have a small chat that shows how important the market is for the old lady. The old lady likes the market because she enjoys the company of the merchants, because her family is busy a lot so they don’t spend so much time together. She likes the low prices and the overall positive atmosphere here, and she also feels like she is helping her family by buying cheap goods for them with her own money. She has no idea however of any plans to change the market. At the same time the young girl appears – Mariana (ally of the oppressed), she helps the old lady collect the coins she just dropped on the ground, in a very informal manner, which is typical for this market (speaking like you are at home to strangers, closeness). The old lady leaves, Mariana tries to start a conversation with Ivanka about the future of the market, but Ivanka is not interested and she has no idea, like the old lady, on what’s going on in the media or the municipality. In the next focus Mariana moves to the next place where Hristo is, they know each other as a seller and a buyer, they talk about the market’s future, he is worried, he can sense by the way that his boss at the municipality talks to them when they pay rent that something is going on, but he can’t find any information about the future of his workplace. Almost at the same time the local resident, Ms Markova (ally of the oppressor), passes by and gets into the conversation – nagging the merchant about crime and the horrible infrastructure of the market, blaming the merchant for all these things without listening to his answers. She remembers a time when the market wasn’t in such a bad shape, and she associates the worsening with the arrival of the new (from 20 years ago) merchants. She leaves, mumbling something. Mariana, confused, wishes the best of luck to the merchant and goes about her way.
Hristo is at Mr Gospodinov’s office to bring the rent of the stalls he has. After he gives the money, Mr Gospodinov informs him, verbally and among other things, that the renovation of the market may start any day now, so the merchants must pay the rent weekly and need to be prepared to leave the market at any given time, and he refuses to go into any details. The news comes to Hristo like a cold shower, and he doesn’t know how to react. He just says ok and leaves the office.
Both merchants are at their stalls, in the morning, preparing for a hard day of work (because working at a market selling vegetables and shoes is not an easy job). Hristo informs Ivanka about the new conditions of paying the rent. They talk to each other about the coming change. It is still not clear to them what exactly and when is going to happen, even though Hristo tried to find out, but, like all of Sofia, he couldn’t find any new information. At that moment Mr Gospodinov appears and announces the start of the reconstruction, and that the merchants need to move out in two days. Nobody makes a sound in the first moment, and the two merchants stare into Gospodinov’s face, until he asks “Is everything clear? Be gone with all your merchandise by Friday. Have a productive day!”, and Hristo, devastated, mumbles a short “Okay, boss...”. They both exit the stage with their heads down and holding some merchandise.
The discussion with the public was focused on exploring what is realistic to do in such situations. Most of them agreed that they need to unite and to make some sort of union in order to claim and protect their rights
