Advertisement

What a good Idea

Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
0

For Dan Baron Cohen, theatre is a lot more than just putting a play on stage. He says it has the power to heal and can cultivate the courage to dream - even in such an inhospitable environment as recently war-torn Bosnia.

The president of the Inter-national Drama/Theatre Education Association (Idea) witnessed this transforming power when he conducted theatre and drama workshops there last year.

'Often in conflict or in war people become numb,' the 50- year-old says. 'You can develop reflexes of hiding your emotions or of self-protection but they're there in your eyes and in the stiffness of your body. Those are memories, trauma, danger and vulnerability that become locked into your body.'

Workshop participants were overloaded with memories they wanted to hide. 'They can't seem to get into the future because the past is so present,' says Baron Cohen. 'But they need to talk about it to change their rigid or defensive way of being.'

He says the challenge was to help them revisit their past so they could clear space for the present and the future. This is done through a process of celebration rather than mourning and the establishment of a workshop culture of solidarity, listening and asking questions rather than making judgments.

'With dance you can very quickly recover all kinds of history and capacity which may have been lost inside the body,' says Baron Cohen. 'The very restrictive gestures or movements you might make to protect yourself in your every- day life all get reorganised. All kinds of communication potential are released.'

Advertisement