"Theatre and Science as Social Intervention"

This chapter focuses on ways that theatre and performance might be understood as a form of social intervention. Acknowledging a broad spectrum of practices from science public engagement events to collaborations between artists and scientists, theatre for young people, drama education initiatives, and global activism projects, this chapter explores selected examples: firstly, exhibitions, lectures and demonstrations focusing on Michael Faraday and the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, and on public autopsy demonstrations; secondly, arts-science collaborations known as “sci-art,” with reference particularly to the work of Y Touring; and thirdly, theatre and activism in relation to climate change through the example of the Climate Change Theatre Action project. This is framed within my own experience as a practitioner working at the boundaries of theatre and science.