Theatre for social change: Collective Encounters on rediscovering the radical

This article will describe Collective Encounters’ participatory practice and situate it within the field of Theatre for Social Change (TFSC). It will argue that in the current political climate TFSC can be a useful tool of opposition. The article will chart the company’s radicalization and call for a repoliticization of the participatory arts sector. It will explore how theatre can contribute to social justice in the context of austerity, how it can challenge the ubiquitous neo-liberal narrative, and what kinds of participatory arts practices might aid the global movement for radical change.

Collective Encounters is a professional arts organization specializing in TFSC. The company is based in north Liverpool, an area of extreme disadvantage, ranked among the top ten in England’s Indices of Multiple Deprivation (DCMS 2011). It works with diverse marginalized communities both here and in the wider North West: many participants are casualties of the prevailing system and feel the direct impact of benefit cuts and the shrinking of the state. Collective Encounters is a small charity employing seven staff members and additional freelance artists as required. It is governed by a board of directors and has a formal legal company structure. The company provides all its work free at the point of use, and thus is dependent on public funding as well as on grants from trusts and foundations. Since 2004, Collective Encounters has maintained three strands to its work: a participatory programme, a professional theatre programme and a research lab. The company is driven by a research imperative to explore ways in which theatre can contribute to the world-wide ‘multitude of opposition’1, working towards greater social justice and against global corporate capitalism’ (Thornton 2015: 2). Over the past five years it has shifted from a liberal to a radical change agenda, and has conducted academic, practical and sectoral research in order to understand and define its field. It has thus identified TFSC as a discernable set of practices by drawing out five key characteristics: intentionality, community, hyphenation, conscientization and aesthetics. While individually they are not unique to TFSC, taken together they frame the field; they are the driving forces behind Collective Encounters thinking and provoke the ethical dilemmas with which the company grapples. They provide an interesting lens through which to view participatory arts practice within the current social and political climate.