Research in Practice has been working on how we can ensure an anti-racist approach within workshops we deliver. In a recent session, we discussed how facilitators can articulate and embody a dynamic approach to working safely and thoughtfully through challenging issues.
Some of the discussions brought to mind the work of the Brazilian theatre practitioner Augusto Boal. Boal developed what he called Theatre of the Oppressed, a set of ideas and practices designed to help people examine power, inequality, and social dynamics. His central belief was that people are not passive recipients of knowledge. They are active participants in shaping their world. Education, for Boal, should rehearse reality, not just describe it.
While Boal worked in live theatre, his underlying principles can translate into a facilitation context, particularly in online spaces. A core idea in Boal’s work is the shift from ‘spectator’ to what he called the ‘spect-actor’ - someone who is not just watching but thinking, questioning, and imagining alternatives.
Applying Forum Theatre when facilitating events
Where participants are asked to play an observer role during an extended presentation, we can sometimes see the limits of information dissemination:
- People agree in principle but struggle to apply ideas in practice.
- Difficult topics (like racism or bias) remain abstract.
- Participants fear ‘getting it wrong’ and stay quiet.
Forum-style approaches gently disrupt this passivity. Instead of presenting a single ‘correct’ response, they invite participants to explore:
- What is happening here?
- Who holds power?
- What assumptions are at work?
- What could be done differently?
This can be aligned with reflective practice and evidence-informed work. It echoes the anchor principles, which can aid analysis and critical thinking. Professional curiosity is central to the approach as professional judgment is situational, relational, and ethically complex.
Through the work that I have seen, anti-racism is not just about knowledge. It is about awareness, courage, and action in real interactions. Traditional training can sometimes create compliance without transformation.
A Boal-inspired mindset helps by:
- Surfacing hidden dynamics - making micro-aggressions and structural issues visible.
- Normalising uncertainty - recognising that people are learning and will make mistakes.
- Rehearsing intervention - allowing participants to think through how they might respond in challenging moments.
- Decentring the facilitator as ‘expert’ - creating shared inquiry rather than top-down instruction.
At first glance, Boal’s work seems tied to physical theatre. But I think his principles are highly adaptable to online environments. In fact, online spaces can sometimes make forum-style learning easier:
- Chat functions allow tentative contributions.
- Breakout rooms enable small-group reflection.
- Hypothetical scenarios create safe distance.
- Polls and prompts can test different perspectives.
I want to come back to the critical point that the key is not theatrical performance, but structured reflection on lived realities. Even simple scenario-based discussions, where participants consider what they might say or do, carry the DNA of Forum Theatre. They turn learning within a workshop into a rehearsal for practice. This is not about turning people into actors or running drama workshops. It’s about borrowing a philosophy.
A Forum Theatre-informed approach can breathe new life into case studies by shifting them from static examples to lived dilemmas. Instead of asking ‘What should the practitioner do here?’, we invite participants to explore ‘What is happening between the people in this scenario? Where is the power? What assumptions are shaping responses?’ Even a short pause to consider alternative actions, or to reflect on how different voices in the case might experience the situation, turns a familiar case study into a space for critical thinking. This doesn’t mean more content or time - it means using the same material to spark deeper reflection, surface bias, and rehearse real-world judgment. The result could lead to greater engagement and more honest discussion, because participants recognise the complexity in their everyday practice.
Forum Theatre in practice
As an advocate of Forum Theatre, and the use of performance pedagogy (in a different life, I used it a lot when running workshops, particularly with young adults), I believe that learning is most powerful when people can question, test, and imagine alternatives.
Recently I bumped into Chukumenka Maxwell who is an independent social worker. We discussed the power of this technique particularly in work around the topic of anti-racist work. Chukumenka pointed me to a company working in this field now. It's one of these wonderful conversations that develops unbidden where you hear of someone else's passion to use all tools available to aid in making a difference.
For those interested, Boal’s ideas are accessible and widely used in education and community work. A good starting point is his book Theatre of the Oppressed, and there are many short introductions and demonstrations available online that show how his thinking has been adapted across contexts. There is more work to be done on the implementation of this idea within an online environment, but I think it certainly serves as food for thought.
