ABSTRACT
Margaretta D’Arcy it was who first reached a hand out towards community, the place where she lived, and for a time it seemed that community, or the ‘fringe’ of the recognized theatrical and cultural circuit, might provide a more satisfactory means to reach their goal. From 1980, Arden and D’Arcy took different but complementary paths. They were still comrades-in-arms, even when they were involved in separate projects. D’Arcy’s work especially moved beyond the confines of theatre into wider, often theatricalized, social and political arenas. D’Arcy’s work is rooted in this tradition, though her achievements over thirty years and more are not always easy to document, or to evaluate. D’Arcy understood that new kinds of democracy become alive and available, once false barriers, such as the will to dominate or the will to organize, are broken down, and once false expectations are ignored.
