Performing the Solution: cautions and possibilities when using theatre conventions within HIV prevention programs

Abstract

Theatre is a powerful medium, but it is not necessarily benevolent in its social effect. Theatre-makers seeking to address resistant public health problems, such as the HIVE epidemic, face the dual struggle of constructing something that is both good theatre and effective prevention education. Good theatre can potentially be bad health promotion. So 'prevention threatre' should not be assessed by aesthetic standards alone. Rather it must be assessed by the dual standards that pertain to both its socially transformative objectives and its aesthetic objectives.