ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses theater as a resource for furthering health-care reform. The chapter opens with a brief outline of how theater has been used to promote patient safety. The chapter then discusses the unique affordance of theater as centring on the affective dimensions of theatrical meaning. A short case vignette presents “Hear me,” a play about a health-service-caused death of a young patient, the discussions that take place following her death, and the relationships among clinicians and between clinicians and the mother of the patient. The play’s public engagement strategy is explained with reference to audience discussions aiming to draw out the complex issues raised in the play. The chapter includes a brief linguistic exposé on the role of the apology in incident disclosure. The chapter concludes with reflections on the potential of theater for engendering reflexivity among health-care professionals, particularly concerning difficult issues such as unexpected clinical outcomes and how these are disclosed to patients and families. Theater is argued to harbor a unique potential for achieving actual, practical, and immediate change in practitioners’ dealings with patients experiencing health-care harm.
