Educating the Heart: Fostering Hope Through Theatre in the AIDS Crisis in South Africa

With approximately 5.3 million people living with HIV/AIDS, South Africa has the highest HIV­ prevalence rate in the world. HIV tends to strike the most vulnerable people in society, and is often associated with high risk behaviours, which inevitably leads to stigmatization. Through an integration of theatre and development theory, I propose to investigate the potential of using theatre as a community event that raises awareness of collective issues and that offers new hope to people living with HIV. I suggest that theatre can educate the heart and put a human face on HIV/AIDS, thus catalyzing a healing process at the community level. By targeting township youth, those who are currently driving the virus, an interactive theatre style, such as participatory methodology, can effectively move beyond didactic education. In participatory theatre, the target group is incorporated into the theatrical representation of their circumstances through the performance of personal testimonies associated with HIV. Here, the power of theatre lies in its ability to produce individual reactions in the audience, which ultimately result in a collective experience and elevated consciousness through the discussion that ensues. The community is thus empowered to engage in a new ap proach to HIV/AIDS. Can such a performance prevent further infections by exposing the consequences and realities of living with AIDS? While a test­case would be ideal in the affirmation of these ideas, I hope to bring a new approach to community theatre through a combination of theories from both theatre and international development studies.