Beatrice and Albert the Unfortunate Children, and the Evil Trafficker, Djean

The theatre show is wonderful.  I have now seen it twice in villages, and it works really, really well.  An audience with no access to TV or radio drama, no cinema or theatre except these NGO funded events but centuries of oral traditional story-telling – they are about as receptive an audience as you can get. They laugh delightedly or intake their breath sharply at  the appropriate moments, and positively delight in the second half of the event – the audience gets to vote the characters in and out, panto-style, and the actors respond with panto gusto, booing the audience and pretending to be furious if they are judged to be a villain.  Everyone joins in and a great deal of both-handed finger wagging occurs.

Then a member of the audience is selected or volunteers to be one of the main characters in a scene promoting the key message, and they play their allocated part with the other actors in role, putting their arguments against – in our case – child trafficking, and finally, it is open-mike on the topic – and there are usually three or four folks with things to say…. Or seven or eight…. Anyway, a huge success, and at each show I am part of the most engaged audience I have ever witnessed.  What a joy.