Ten years ago, Reboot the Roots creative director Serge left the squats of Hackney and returned to Malaysia to facilitate and organise in solidarity with a community of recovering drug users, refugees, and people living with HIV. They blogged about their experience, and we wish to share highlights from their writings to highlight the origins of RtR as an arts-for-social-change organisation.

“Ami birodhi!

I am the rebel warrior

I have risen alone with my head held high

I will only rest

When the cries of the oppressed

No longer reach the sky

When the sound of the sword of the oppressor

No longer rings in battle

Hear my warcry!”

– Rebel Warrior, Asian Dub Foundation

 The last few weeks, their have been several conversations and disruptions regarding our organisation standards – namely, communication within our group and coordinating the numerous actions we are engaged in. This morning, as I was woken up by Augustine to be told the people from Malaysian Care were here, I had to agree that we need to redress the devil-many-care shambolism that has become our preferred modus operandi with an approach I have jingoistically decided to call community – the synthesis of communication and unity.

Perhaps it was because we were up late talking about how we need to communicate more closely with the coordinator team that we somehow forgot to doublecheck the dates. In my mind I had added up the days and come up with Wednesday. Even my phone had the wrong date on it. This does begin to happen once the gears get rolling on projects like this. Missed opportunities or a cut-throat brinksmanship that is tremendously exciting but not unproblematic. What we need is someone good with dates, calenders, and persistent reminders – a dedicated PA would be lovely. Oh, to dream! Still … everything that needs doing, gets done. I admit that I have come to revel in the Malaysian cultural artifacts or rubber-time and last-minute-crisis-containment.

To the barricades!

So, whilst I staggered around bleary-eyed and confused, Soon and Nurul launched into the workshop and bought me enough time to gather my thoughts and assemble a last minute, but in the end, highly successful and enjoyable workshop. The group were literally roaring with laughter as we went through the activities, one man was wiping tears from his eyes, and the eventual forums we produced were crisp and satisfying like a good Brickfields thosai.

Malaysian Care Forum Theatre Workshop Day 2

The morning took in the mirror sequences, with explanations of the necessity to train in observation and learning again to not only look but observe one another, to see accurately what is being expressed by the body and face, by the image of those around us. To heighten the senses we also engaged in some movement and trust exercises (Joe Egg, Colombian Hypnosis). It was the first time I did the hypnosis game with four people hypnotised by one … hilarious to see people scampering over one another as their hypnotists flipped and rolled on the floor …

This developed into a memory exercise to recall the previous week’s session. As their were four new members in the group, this was mixed in with some erroneous but equally acceptable data of alternative Tuesdays. The objective was not only to activate memory and sense, but to get them to review and reconnect with the work previously done.

After the memory recall, the group was bifurcated and given the task of assembling a triage of images about Last Tuesday, which would then be replayed to the group with sound and dynamisation.

Last Tuesday – Images With Dynamisations

Recreating The Office Forum

• The first group dedicatedly recreated the three keys images of the forum from last week: the image of Sam too busy to assist Fred as he struggles with the box; the image of Fred injured on the floor whilst a co-worker sings ‘Ain’t nobody, nobody but me *clap clap*; Boss Yongyong surrounded by irate workers whilst Sam stands arrogantly by.
• This was great, as it lead us directly into a recap discussion of what we created last week for those who had not seen it. All of the group are co-workers of different levels of senority and department and it was beneficial to all to review the triage in its entirety.

The Chain of Care

• The second group’s first image caused some discussion – it showed a seemingly irate man, clenching his forehead, whilst a woman cried ‘naughty!’ and caned two exuberant youth who were shouting ‘whassup!’. The cane strike changed their demeanour to one of extreme defensiveness. Nearby, a seemingly disconnected man glanced over at the situation and spoke into a phone: ‘Has the deal been done?’
• Interpretations variously included an orphanage; human trafficking; schools; family problems; drug deals.
• This may be an example of a successful demonstration of the plasticity of the method, or the problem of identifying the core image’s intention. Even now I wonder what happened to the person whose Tuesday this represented!
• The second group had the forum as its final image – represented by the seed image.
• The third image we played with showed a chain of events: a woman is attempting suicide and proclaiming her deathwish; a second woman comforts her and says ‘ take care; call’; they call through to Malaysian Care; who calls another person who has no idea what to do – ‘What’s happening?’; which leads to the final person collapsing on the floor in complete stress crying ‘Crisis!’

The Ideal Chain

• This chain of events seemed appropriate to explore the ‘ideal solution’; so two groups recreated the chain but this time showed what would have been an ‘ideal’ solution to the problem.
• The first group kept the first three stages the same. The fourth person now collaborated with the fifth (who had been in Crisis!) and caringly brought him forward to attend the problem.
• Analysis suggested that this could be a family reunion, that the first and last members of the chain could have been related in someway not previously seen; or that Malayisan Care staff members could support each other through these crisises by working together.
• The movement of stepping forward, together, was powerfully recreated.
• In the second groups representation, the second person physically stopped the ‘self-harm’ or ‘wrist-slitting’ image, holding those hands and screaming much more loudly ‘stop!’
• The final two links of the chain again recreated the image of stepping forward to help, despite the apparent stress and difficulty of the final chain member.
• In both images – the central figure on the phone who answered ‘Malaysian Care’ remained the same. You couldn’t ask for a clearer image of motivation and collaboration in problem solving – the ethos of MC linking together those in need and the needs of staff. I was happy C. from management had attended to see the technique in action.

After this, we stopped for lunch. And tea, which is very important.

After lunch, we played some classics (Saints & Sinners) and then did some memory/recall/oppression/dialogue discussion. It was great to see the atmosphere change to one of serious, dedicated discussion.

Several stories of oppression emerged: the pastor’s son rejected by his friends for being the son of a pastor and the plight of refugees in Malaysia being the most popular to develop into a forum.

The group produced two forums, based upon real oppressions that had emerged during the discussion. We narrowed the process down first through voting, and then by allowing members to tell real oppression they knew about the chosen topic.

The Bar Fight

Tungga works long hours as a fry-chef in a mamak with his friend Yongyong. They are busy gorenging food late at night whilst a table of two GROs party noisily with Bobo – a local hardnut. When they finish, they are persuaded to join the drinking, even though Tungga is obviously exhausted. They down beer after beer, with the rowdy and loquacious Bobo getting hammered. Tungga tries to resist, but acquiesces to the aggressive Bobo. After a while, Bobo suddenly snaps, his mood turning, and becomes threatening and physically domineering of Tungga. Tungga is unable to explain himself, and Bobo stabs him. Bobo flees the scene, leaving Tungga apparently dead in the arms of Yongyong.

The piece underwent a period of direction and focusing to create varied characters and images, and was constructed from a triage of images to coalesce the idea in a simple format. Originally, the oppression discussed also had an addendum, which was that the police refused to do anything because Tungga was an illegal.

There were three interventions:

• In the first intervention, first Tungga tried to make excuses with Yongyong, but was eventually convinced. Tungga sat down with the drinkers, but poured his beer away secretly. When Bobo became aggressive, Tungga said he would buy more beer, and then fled. This was criticised for leaving Yong yong at the mercy of Bobo.
• In the second, Tungga was convivial and charmed Bobo into going drinking in Changkat Bunkit Bintang with him. This was criticised for being slightly ‘magic’ as before Tungga had been exhausted and nearly mute, and was now suddenly energetic and talkative.
• In the third, Tungga again tried to talk Yongyong out of joining them, and Bobo actually came over and physically dragged him to drink. This time, he made the excuse to go to the toilet, and Bobo said this made him much less of a threat as it seemed to go with his ‘flow’. Yongyong, however, was still at risk.

It was inspiring to see the specactors dedication to solving this problem – one of dealing with an aggressive drinker in essence – and also that of the actors in the scene, who took direction extraordinarily well and were very commited to producing a theatrical convincing scene of a bar. The GROs were flirtatious but sympathetic, and Bobo was spectacular. Indeed, all the performers in this group were really a joy to work with.

Rejected By The UNHCR

A man is being cared for in a shelter home, too sick to move. The administrator receives word that he is illegal, so cannot be housed anymore, and orders the reluctant careworker and nurse to pack his things and evict him. They try to resist, but eventually pack his bags and start to move him out to almost certain death.

Again, this scene was based on a real story, which gave incredible gravitas to the performance. We were dealing with reality – not just ‘acting’ – but the actions of genuine human beings. We knew the consequences of this (and the prior scene) to be of the highest stakes – a man’s life.

The intervention I recall best was the final one. There were some attempts to change the mind of the boss, who was incredibly hardline at first, but after some tuition in the premise of supportive improv the actors got the idea that this was an opportunity to experiment with a real solution. Here is what emerged:

• The careworker and the nurse begin by resisting, givign arguments why it is inhumane to evict the resident to almost certain death. The boss argues back that the shelter home is at risk. He threatens them with job loss, unless they can provide a better solution. One of the staff recommends to call Malaysian Care, which lead to a series of phone calls (expertly portrayed by other members of the group) following the process of rehousing the illegal patient.

Of all the workshops I have done recently, today’s was definitely one of the most satisfying, with a highly intelligent, highly engaged group not only having a great time, but very explicitly discussing and solving real problems that they know of and work with within their community and their organisation. We finished with some discussion of the process, and all in all, the response is extremely positive. I expect a high return rate for the final session on Friday when, hopefully, we will be as successful and more prepared than today.