One story about how we made change. In a quiet chat with Augusto Boal, founder of Theatre of the Oppressed, I told him a story of a piece we had done, and asked, “Do you know of any other instance where theatre has been invited as a tool to speak directly to government?”; it got him thinking. “No,” he answered. “I know of no other.” I watched as his mind turned that over. I had no idea what he was thinking at the time. What did I tell him? In the mid-1980’s midwifery was illegal in Ontario. The government struck a task force to collect information from stake-holders around the province to investigate legislative change. Women Today, Sheatre and the Midwifery Support Group in Huron County were invited to make a presentation, We created Images of Birth. Then the government got wind of what we were up to…
The day before the midwifery inquiry, we were told we couldn’t come; our approach was non-traditional and they had no room in the courthouse. Not about to let our voices be silenced, Valerie Bolton of Women Today put gentle political pressure on them (our MPP was the Minister of Health), and … we were on again!
It was quiet in the London courthouse during the proceedings that day. Presenters read a series of academic papers. The Task Force heard each, maintained their distance high on a dais and made no comment. Paper after paper was delivered. Then it was us. Our presentation consisted of two elements: a long scroll of drawings made and presented by the midwifery group along with a spoken appeal from them and their little children, and a simple {tip IMAGE THEATRE::Actors create a still image, or series of still images, using only their bodies to convey an idea, moment and emotion. There are no words.|info}Image Theatre{/tip} piece we had devised with them that showed a non-ideal image of clinical birth. The audience in the courtroom was then invited to help us change the image to make it ideal. An entirely new image emerged., a sensual, breathy, beautiful, sexual, light-filled image of a woman supported by her family and community as she birthed at home. A well-known Mennonite midwife, Elsie, who was risking arrest to be there and be seen publicly (and who had been lurking in the hallway), stepped up to deliver the babe. The power was palpable. The audience was roused by the risks their peers were taking, and applauded the simple, beautiful, easy, logical, perfect image. The lead panelist from the government put down her pen, looked directly at us from high above and said, “This is the most powerful presentation we’ve seen anywhere across the province.” After a pause she added, “Could you work with the doctors?” Everyone laughed. I offered that we would. (Later we would travel to Toronto to present at a conference about midwifery.) In the end, midwifery was legalized. That changed everybody’s life.
Interviewed by Monica Bolton-Walker for a research paper about Women Today 25 years later, people remembered that moment as one of the most important things the organization did, and one of the most powerful things they had ever personally done. In 1994 my oldest daughter was supported and cared for by a midwife during her pregnancy, a lovely ripple.
Flashback: Now Boal is thinking about this. “No,” he answered. “I know of no other.” He went on to develop the tool he called “Legislative Theatre” which is now used around the world to create change.
You have to understand that this was a wee piece of theatre created in my living room with rural women. Our work inspired personal and legal change in Ontario. And we changed the world. Sometimes there is nothing simple about a simple community project.
