Emancipatory Theatre and Performative Didactics

This article is based on several years of empirical observation, gathered from theatre practice, in which Karin B. Bjerkestrand and Anna Songe-Møller developed what is known as “Solidarity Forum Theatre” (SFT), a form of applied drama. This theatre form is based primarily on the Brazilian, Augusto Boal’s, Theatre of the Oppressed (Boal, 2006). Bjerkestrand and Songe-Møller used and further developed Boal’s theatre principle in a collaboration with various immigrant groups and drama-/theatre students. The intention has been to use the liberating potential into which this form of theatre invites us. In this article, Bjerkestrand and Songe-Møller present the theoretical groundwork, the underlying principles, and examples of SFT in action. One of the participants’ stories in particular have been used to concretize the liberating aspect that arose in the theatre experiences. In relation to this Solidarity Forum Theatre practice, science theorist and art educator Venke Aure presents epistemological and didactic reflections.