Withholding the personal story: using theory to orient practice in applied theatre about HIV and human rights

When applied theatre is used in service of a health promotion or rights agenda, particular responsibilities come into play. The artist must be able to articulate their theory of change and translate it into action. In this article, I trouble the borderline between an ethical and an exploitative use of story when working to provide opportunities for 'youth voice'. I use a reflective practitioner method, working between theoretical argument and case story involving a project conducted in Thailand with a group of young drug users who were commissioned to make the 'youth voice' plenary presentation at Response Beyond Borders: The Second Asian Consultation on the Prevention of HIV-related to Drug Use (Bangkok, January 2010). I discuss some of the key decisions I made as the arts-based practitioner leading a group of young people who identified neither as actors nor as advocates. I discuss the challenges I encountered in working between the ethics and the aesthetics of the 'performance of the self'. I draw upon poststructuralist theory to highlight the way in which the positioning of the participants influences the types of knowledge that we can create through our stories. I discuss the way in which the re-telling of victim-deviant stories can work to perpetuate limiting storylines and work against the possibility of social change. I challenge the epistemological assumption that rehearsal for change is of itself sufficient as a liberation strategy and draw attention to the need to position both players and audiences inside a sense of the possibility and desirability of change. I propose key principles to orient my use of 'enquiry theatre' for social change.