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Changing behaviour

Toby Jones

Wednesday, 20th February 2008

Toby Jones on how theatre is being used in Malawi to help stop the spread of Aids

Natasha Freedman sees the collaboration with TfaC as a way of extending Complicite’s work beyond the traditional theatre audience. Education has always been at the heart of what Complicite does, and like TfaC she is keen to explore ways in which physical theatre can promote self-awareness through play. In the UK there is a pressing need to reconnect young people with their bodies, to which rising levels of STDs, teenage pregnancies, obesity and eating disorders bear witness. The dynamic work of TfaC and its facilitators offers a way forward in attempts to use theatre as a means of changing behaviour.

The roots of Complicite’s theatre lie in the games and exercises developed by the great French teacher Jacques Lecoq. Much of his work was about returning the actor to the centre of the theatre-making process as author, deviser and facilitator of their own work. By rediscovering the origins of contemporary theatre in ancient masked rituals or crowded piazzas Lecoq encouraged his students both to revisit those traditions and to mix and match them in new ways.

As the facilitators finish their training later this year they will take what they have learnt into the nine national teacher-training colleges. Within a year their message will have been passed, via the colleges, to more than 6,000 teachers. These teachers are the key to sustainable grass-roots ‘behaviour change’. They will have the opportunity to inspire thousands of eight- to 12-year-old Malawians. These children constitute Malawi’s ‘window of hope’ if only they can learn to pursue a healthy future. The TfaC project is nothing short of a counter-virus.

By the end of this initial trip it was clear that the two companies could forge an ongoing relationship. Our stated desire to return and continue the work with the company was greeted by a sustained 20-minute sung improvisation. And as the voices rose to a crescendo, floating in and out of the different verses, the trainees began moving and weaving through the space in the familiar shapes of a Complicite chorus. An exchange is already under way.