Inclusive democracy: a consideration of playback theatre with refugee and asylum seekers in Australia

Abstract

Community-based performance often facilitates participation through story-based processes and in this way could be seen as enacting a form of inclusive democracy. This paper examines a playback theatre performance with a refugee and asylum seeker audience and questions whether inclusive, democratic participation can be fostered. It presents a snapshot of the political/social/cultural climate in Australia, as well as the refugee and asylum seeker sector in Brisbane, at the time of the performance by referencing discourses of multiculturalism and stranger danger in the wake of 9/11. Specific moments from the performance are analysed to reveal the way the momentum of ritual performance clashes with the tenuous status of the refugee participant and the structural power dynamics within the audience.

Notes

1. Implicit in this paper is the assumption that the readership will have some level of familiarity with the basic playback theatre method. For an elaboration of specific technical details about the form see Salas (1993).

2. This paper takes as its focus the place of personal story in the community-based event and the teller's relationship to others and to the context overall. Elsewhere I have examined the dramatisation of the stories in this performance and analysed the position of the performer in relation to the teller and context. See Dennis (2006).

3. The place of personal stories has become progressively more prominent in rehabilitation and resettlement contexts. This is linked to the principles of inclusion and social justice like participation, individual agency, voice and identity, and sustainable empowerment that informs this work and where story-based processes are seen as a way to enact these principles.

4. ‘Children overboard’ is an infamous media headline from September 2001 that became the catch phrase used to refer to the approach of Norwegian freighter, Tampa, into Australian waters. The captain of the Tampa had acted in accordance with the mariners’ humanitarian code and rescued 433 refugees from a sinking fishing boat in Australian waters in August 2001. They were within 2 km from the coast of Christmas Island (an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean) when Prime Minister John Howard refused them entry. Most of the refugees on board were redirected to the Pacific Island, Nauru, with others going to New Zealand. The Tampa crisis dominated local political debate and was prominent in the international arena until it was displaced by the shocking events of September 11. For a detailed analysis of the political maneuvering underpinning the Tampa crisis, see Marr and Wilkinson (2003).

5. As in the UK, the formal stranger danger campaigns in Australia include child safety campaigns that raise awareness of the danger of child sex offenders. However, as Ahmed states, there are multiple constructions of stranger embedded in the discourse and in her deconstruction she claims that it has come to broadly refer to the stranger as invader and as a threat to the otherwise ‘safe neighbourhood’.

6. Celebrating Colourful Communities was produced by the local non-government organisation responsible for multicultural affairs with funding from the federal government's Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (DIMA).

7. In the lead-up to the event, Rhada (name has been changed), an agent of the organising body, spoke of her desire for the event to be seen as ‘a good experience’.

8. That the playback theatre company has been invited is of particular importance here. If the work had been initiated by the playback company this places them as host of the event. From its inception Fox has spoken about playback theatre in terms of ‘service’ publishing his own treatise Acts of Service in 1994. However, in being invited there is a chance that the company members are present as citizens/community members. As such, there is scope for the performer to be positioned as ‘part of’ rather than ‘apart from’ the community of participants.

9. The event was promoted through all agencies working with refugees, asylum seekers and newly arrived migrants, and the ‘ethnic community’ agencies.

10. 35 women, 22 men and 3 children.

11. This section is informed by my reflective notes and does not purport to be a comprehensive analysis of the stories told during this event. Rather it is an abbreviated description designed to situate the reader.

12. The opening tableau in the enactment invoked a representation of war, converging epic cinematic references with an aesthetic indicative of television news.

13. People were formally invited to supper as a way to wrap up the event. English was the second language for about half of the audience participants, which led to people gathering in language groups. More than half the audience completed a feedback form.

14. It is important to emphasise the non-fictional nature of story within the playback method; unlike drama generally and many applied and process theatre methodologies and other community-based performance practices, where there is a clear differentiation between the fiction and the real and a concerted effort to ensure fictionalised narratives feature as a way to ensure distancing for participants (see O'Toole, 1992), in playback it is the personal story that is central.

15. Ariel is an advocate for refugee and asylum seekers who do not yet have status as a citizen of the state. Previously from Germany, she has been a resident of Australia for some years. The excerpts here are from an interview conducted with her after the performance.

16. Previously I have written about how the tension of participation in a playback theatre performance is derived from the ritual framing inherent in the community-based event that both drives and is driven by the audience-performer interaction. See Dennis (2007).

17. Leeann is a newcomer to the sector, recently appointed to facilitate a community art project with refugees and asylum seekers. It is her first commission. The excerpt here is informed by a telephone interview conducted with her after the performance.

18. Mercy is a worker within the resettlement agenda and works supporting people who have secured temporary protection visas. Having emigrated from Iran, she has been a resident in Australia for some time. The excerpt here is from an interview conducted with her a few days after the performance.

19. As explained earlier, Ariel is an advocate working with asylum seekers and the agency manager. As she states earlier, she is Marcus's caseworker. Nina is Ariel's colleague, working part-time in the same agency. She knows Marcus through this association. Nina was sitting alongside Marcus during the performance and her comment about him feeling pressured comes from her observations during the performance.