ABSTRACT
The notion of intervention implies the arrival of some outside force to alter the dynamics of a static situation. Applied theatre, according to this understanding, is the agency of intervention forcing its way into closed worlds in order to provoke changes, such as dropping a boulder into a stagnant pond. As a participatory, collective form of artistic and social engagement, theatre resists the isolating, passive modes of the dominant forms of screen culture. Where applied theatre projects espouse the aim of transformation or social change, it might be expected that the practitioners would seek to work with those who are best suited to bring about change. There are many strategies for intervention; as many as the contexts into which a practitioner might intervene. ‘Optimum intervention’, to borrow Zakes Mda’s phrase, is not achieved through a fixed formula but only through a dialectical interaction of participants and facilitators who are practising a co-intentional approach to self-development and social change.
