I N RECENT YEARS the Malta Drama Centre has introduced Community Theatre, a genre of drama concerned with social issues. This paved the way for the Drama Centre to get involved in specific lifelong learning programmes offered by the European Union under the Grundtvig scheme. The Drama Centre has assumed a key role in the organization and the training of animators interested in issue theatre. Several projects have involved learners and animators from Austria, Bulgaria, France, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia.

As a medium for these Grundtvig programmes, the Malta Drama Centre has chosen Augusto Boal’s method of forum theatre, which empowers citizens to confront issues that compromise their way of life. For instance, the Drama Centre has undertaken projects dealing with domestic violence, drugs, alcoholism, the rehabilitation of ex-prisoners, ecological problems and the hazards of modern technology.

Mario Azzopardi, the Drama Centre’s Principal, elaborates: "The Malta Drama Centre has been providing training in European countries related to issue-based theatre for several years now. All our programmes are connected to the lifelong learning schemes offered by the EU. In Europe amateur theatre is extremely influential and issue drama has a high profile in matters where culture and society are concerned. It is estimated that there are about 150,000 amateur theatre companies in Europe which, besides promoting the performing arts, are specifically committed social entities in the promotion of a democratic, civil society."

Azzopardi goes on to explain: "Our Drama Centre has offered active involvement to companies and ad hoc groups by way of training leading to the empowerment of European citizens, especially those that are voiceless. Our programmes are usually funded by the Grundtvig sectional programme, which aims at promoting European cooperation in lifelong learning."

Augusto Boal, the creator of the theatre practice known as forum theatre, expressed the view that "theatre is a representation and not a reproduction of social reality." His way of making theatre was groundbreaking because he sought to empower the audience, whom he called "spect-actors". Rather than accept the role of a uniformly passive audience, Boal encouraged the "spect-actors" to interrupt a performance with suggestions as to how the piece could proceed in a different manner to the scripted one. Such rudimentary beginnings evolved into the type of theatre Boal termed "theatre of the oppressed", where all possible ideas, strategies and solutions are thrashed out on stage so that the resulting possibilities could be applied to real situations, the ultimate aim being the neutralization of oppressive conditions.

Inspired by the upheavals ushered in by the 60’s and 70’s grassroots social and political movements for changes in power structures, forum theatre projects have been carried out in a myriad of themes including human rights, rural communities, the trauma of war, sustainable development, prisons and the justice system, education, sexually transmitted illnesses and HIV/AIDS and mental health.

In its most recent undertaking under the auspices of the Grundtvig Lifelong Learning Programme, the Malta Drama Centre entered into a tripartite partnership with Austria and Greece. The European Union’s Grundtvig Programme was specifically set up to fund training opportunities for adult education organizations. It presently supports a variety of different projects and offers financial backing to all kinds of entities that are interested in a pan-European approach in sharing expertise and enhancing experiences.

All three countries specified an issue which is of relevance to their respective communities. Malta chose the problem of illegal immigration; Austria focused on the problem of national identity whereas Greece showed particular interest in a pressing problem related to the health hazards provoked by the installation of hundreds of electromagnetic antennas on Hortiatis Hill (Azvestohori) in Thessaloniki.

The issue proved to be of particular relevance in the light of the European Parliament’s (EP) position on the unregulated proliferation of mobile antennas. The EP recently voted with an overwhelming majority to shake up regulations governing mobile base-stations and other sources of electromagnetic frequency. The concerns raised in the EP over the potential danger to exposure to electromagnetic sources was echoed in Malta by environmental lobbies who have specified that the ratio of mobile phone antennas in Malta now stands at one antenna per 194 citizens.

According to an EP resolution, Europeans are now sustaining exposure to a dangerous mixture of electromagnetic fields both in private and work environments. This can provoke potential health hazards, mostly to children. A report published in a daily Maltese Newspaper (The Malta Independent) listed a number of resolutions contained within the EU document. Recommendations include a call on governments to improve the protection of people living close to transmitters. Provisions should be introduced regarding the distance between a given location and the transmitters. It also calls for the proper placement of antennas and the sharing of masts and transmitters, so as to limit proliferation. Furthermore, the resolution "urges authorities to ensure, at least, that schools, crèches, retirement homes and health care institutions are kept free of facilities of this type."

It was within this context that the Maltese contingent of actors from the Malta Drama Centre travelled to Greece to explore the threats posed by electromagnetic sources on and around Hortiatis Hill. Before doing so, however, fieldwork consisting of a number of workshops was carried out. Concerns, such as a higher incidence of cancer, loss of fertility, miscarriages and disabled babies, were put forward and discussed at length. The preparatory work continued in Greece with an onsite visit to Hortiatis Hill, ironically known as "Antenna Park", and workshops with the Greek and Austrian partners, during which a number of sketches were produced in a collaborative process.

Several themes were investigated in the sketches, including: the effects of the antennas on agriculture and rural life, the effects on health provoked by the proliferation of mobile phones, the politicians’ inertia and indifference to pressure exerted by citizens, the prohibitive cost of alternative facilities that enable technological communication, and the fictitious case of a couple whose child is diagnosed with cancer and decides to move to a safer locality in an attempt to lessen the family’s risk.

In practice, the first sketch presented three actors interpreting the authorities’ lack of interest in the issue. Another actor went up to them asking for assistance but he came up against a blank wall. The second sketch highlighted the environmental damage caused to the area with the installation of the antennas. The piece emphasized the fact that these changes have not been unilaterally positive, even though humans adapt to an environment that is potentially harmful as depicted in the scene of the woman hanging her washing out to dry on the antennas. The third sketch delved into the safer, but costlier, option of satellite dishes, which could only be afforded as long as the state subsidizes them. The next sketch explored ways in which the advent of new technology modified the way people communicat in juxtaposing traditional ways of life and a contemporary lifestyle, shown by a woman who stops dancing a typical Greek dance to call friends up on her mobile, inviting them to join her. The final sketch focused on the aforementioned case of a family whose child is ill with cancer.

Moreover, the Maltese group interviewed a number of residents and explained the aims of the Antenna Park project. Naturally, the interviewees expressed anxiety about the threats posed to the community’s health. Nikos, a barber by profession, observed that scientific research has established that the radiation levels at the school in Asvestohori are up to five times higher than the recommended levels. This was confirmed by Maria, a teacher of Physics and IT, who believes that there could be a direct link between the headaches and poor concentration people complain of and the high density of antennas on Hortiatis Hill.

Central to the forum theatre method is the character known as the "Joker", who acts as a mediator between the actors and the spectators instigating the public to take active roles as "spect-actors" and change what is happening on stage. In the Antenna Park project the role of the "Joker" was performed by Abigail Williams, who also directed the workshops and the devised improvisations leading to the actual scenes presented to the audience on the night of the performance.

Lilia Lytra and Maria Papanikolaou, two of the Greek partners in the project, noted that although the audience was unfamiliar with forum theatre techniques, it exhibited an extremely high level of interaction irrespective of age or educational attainment. In their own words: "The most important outcome was that the citizens of Hortiatis and the greater region experienced in the theatre hall a collective effort against the chronic unsolved problem and that they understand the power of team action."

A key actor in the project, David Scicluna Giusti, commented that the audience didn’t feel inhibited in expressing its concerns to Asvestohori’s mayor, who was present for the performance.

Significantly, before the actual performance took place a legal notice for the removal of 21 illegal antennas was issued. During the performance the town’s mayor remarked that although not all the antennas were to be dismantled, this was a step in the right direction. Such pressure on elected representatives ties in with Mario Azzopardi’s view on theatre as a tool to bring about positive change in people’s lives: "Participatory theatre is a direct way to empower citizens in a pan-European context. It is a means of instigation towards social change. Through our programmes we have focused on segments of people who are, in one way or another, oppressed, either on a personal or social level. The Antenna Park Project in Greece, for instance, gave currency to a collective form of protest against electromagnetic threats. The citizens had talked and protested in a sporadic way, but the Grundtvig Programme brought them all together like never before. It engaged them as a collective force so as to plan strategies to overcome their fears. In this sense, theatre becomes a rehearsal for action."

Interviewed in June 2007 for Democracy Now, Augusto Boal revealed that he dreamt of the kind of solidarity that creates ethics not morals, as terrible injustices can be couched in a moral framework. In this context he quoted the Spanish poet Antonio Machado, who says, "The path does not exist. You make the path by treading on it. By walking you make the path."

It is this "walking", the willingness to renounce a passive stance in order to bring about transformative change, that issue-based forum theatre projects aim at achieving. Fittingly, the Antenna Park Project was dedicated to the memory of Augusto Boal, who passed away earlier this year.

GRUNDTVIG LIFELONG LEARNING PROGRAMME 2009: