La Boom

The interactive quality of forum theatre - developed by Brazilian theatre director Augusto Boal as a method of encouraging critical thinking and triggering social change - makes it a great way to explore social issues such as gangs, violence, knife and gun crime, drugs, racism and bullying.

Over the last two years, the group have devised a number of forum pieces working with Hanna Lune and Jen Camillin. One of these, La Boom, was sponsored by Avon & Somerset Police and Government Office South West (GOSW) to tour secondary schools in Bristol and surrounding areas. They were also asked to perform the piece at GOSW's regional conference in June 06.

The production was interactive, shaped to encourage the audience to speak up and change the action as they explored the consequences of gang involvement or carrying weapons. A DVD was made from this project, to be used in a similar way in schools and youth clubs as a teaching resource.

Hanna & tfa Jen

Evaluation of the project

According to young people, the piece 'showed us a serious matter in a funny way, so we paid more attention’, and ‘it was very interesting and it made people change their mind about knives.’

Teacher evaluations were also highly positive: 'Very effective, excellent production, acting and slides….’ said one, and another: 'An extremely effective method for explaining these issues which are central to many young people’s lives - the cast knew exactly how to reflect the kids’ experience which meant that all pupils were really engaged with the ideas and issues. It was great.’

Although the work was very well received by both young people and adults that they work with, building a truly diverse group of 15-20 years olds which reflects all groups in our communities has been difficult - most of the actors are from black and dual heritage backgrounds. For these untrained actors, it is extremely hard to develop forum performance skills, which require great flexibility as different suggestions are made by the audience, and not to become bored by repeating the same show over and over.

For this reason, we have changed the way we are working to incorporate other mediums and to allow young people to engage for a shorter length of time.