ABSTRACT
Playback Theatre is an interactive theatre practice in which audience members tell personal stories and watch as they are enacted on the spot by a team of trained performers. Playback generally takes place in community settings such as village halls, refugee camps, and schools. Although not defined as a therapeutic practice, Playback has the capacity to address human suffering, including trauma, through embodiment, storytelling, and the call to the imagination. This chapter reflects on the use of Playback Theatre with collective and individual trauma, with reference to stories told by incarcerated women, children in residential treatment, survivors of natural disasters, and people enduring political oppression.
