Participatory Democracy on Stage in Folkestone, 18 October, Sunflower House 5pm as part of the the FOLKESTONE FRINGE: FLINT & CLAY 2025.

Participatory Democracy Project, Geneva, 2024.

The Folkestone Performing Arts Company is thrilled to announce that they will be participating in the FOLKESTONE FRINGE: FLINT & CLAY 2025.

On the 18th of October, FPAC and local residents will co-create a short piece of theatre based on lived experiences addressing local or national policy challenges.  At 5pm, they will perform this play in front of an audience of key policy makers, business owners, political leaders and others with the hope of legislating systemic change within the community. 

The Folkestone Performing Arts Company’s Legislative Theatre Project will bring the local community & and policy-makers together to co-create innovative and effective solutions to complex challenges that are faced by Folkestone residents. 

In it, a short play is created which ‘ends badly’ for the protagonist or main character.  The play is then ‘rewound’ and the audience is asked to come up on stage to try out other, more positive, strategies to have a different outcome.  In this way, the actors and the audience ‘rehearse life’ within the safety of ‘play acting’.  

Artistic Director Matthew Hahn, who will be facilitating the workshop, has over 20 years of experience as a theatre for development practitioner in working with communities in struggle, he has co-created interactive and participatory international theatre projects focusing on developing and enabling young people, social cohesion, peace-making and conflict resolution in the Global South & North.  

A Theory of Change is a method that explains how a given intervention, or set of interventions, can lead to a specific developmental change.  Theatre can be a powerful tool in enacting such a theory by supporting systemic change and / or policy development.  This can be demonstrated by the interactive ‘Legislative Theatre’ process:  Legislative Theatre opens the possibility for change to be catalysed and creates a platform for the advocacy of rights.

Working beyond issue awareness and community building, Legislative Theatre allows the participants to address the obstacles or oppressions they face to key policymakers in the audience who then interact with the play with the hope that these policymakers will then legislate systemic change in the community. This form uses participatory and interactive theatre techniques to examine communication breakdown and power imbalance.

HOW DOES IT WORK[i]?

Create:  Community members create an original play based on lived experiences, addressing local or national policy challenges:  Our communities face big challenges — climate change, social exclusion, declining trust in public institutions, etc. Meaningful public participation can help governments address these challenges. 

Perform:  Community members perform their original play to audience members who can make systemic change and those who have lived experience of the presented challenges.

Act:  Audience members step onstage as the ‘protagonist’ in the play to improvise potential alternatives to the problems presented, testing new rules and policies in real time.  The community actors become ‘antagonists’ gently pushing back on any alternatives that are suggested by audience members. 

Propose: Audiences, advocates and policy-makers collaboratively shape these alternative ideas into specific policy proposals, followed by deliberation, debate, and amendments to embed systemic change.

Vote: Everyone present votes on the proposals – using theatre to spark concrete change.

Commit: Policymakers and advocates make commitments to action based on the proposals. 

Through this participatory policymaking, community members propose, debate, and vote on new policies and policy changes.  For further information about Legislative Theatre, please visit here.   

[i] Some material adapted & developed from The People Act Legislative Theatre Resources [www.thepeopleact.org/resources]