Playback Theatre as a response to the impact of political violence in occupied Palestine

In Playback Theatre, audience members volunteer stories from their own lives, then a team of performers subsequently turns each account into a piece of improvised theatre. The Freedom Theatre’s Freedom Bus troupe uses Playback Theatre for community-building, cultural activism and collective trauma response throughout the West Bank of Occupied Palestine. This article describes the Freedom Bus initiative, reflecting in particular upon the possibilities and limits of Playback Theatre for trauma response in the context of ongoing political violence and structural oppression. It also explores the preparatory and post-performance considerations necessary to ensure the health and effectiveness of the Playback Theatre practitioner.