(Dis)Placed: A Theatre of the Oppressed Festival captivated audiences and participants alike with a transformative exploration of some of today’s most pressing social issues. Held in venues across Drogheda, the festival brought together artists, activists, and community members to use the power of theatre to foster understanding, solidarity, and action.
Through innovative techniques such as forum theatre, newspaper theatre, and legislative theatre, the festival shed light on global and local struggles, including the housing crisis, the universal experience of migration, and the fight for justice in Palestine. By connecting these issues, (Dis)Placed emphasised the power of collective storytelling and immersive dialogue in driving community-driven solutions for a more equitable world.
“This festival is about more than performance—it’s about creating a space for people to reflect, engage, and take action,” said Bobby McCormack, CEO of Development Perspectives. “We’re building bridges between global struggles and local concerns, fostering solidarity, and empowering communities to imagine change together.”
About the organisers:
Creativity and Change, MTU: Creativity & Change makes space for learning about creativity and its power to ignite empathy, passion and learning about our interdependent world. Rooted in values of empathy, social justice, and sustainability, it blends artistic expression with critical thinking to address pressing global challenges. Through workshops, experiential learning, and community engagement, Creativity and Change equips learners with tools to inspire action, challenge inequities, and envision a better world. It’s a space where art meets activism, unlocking the potential for positive, lasting societal impact.
Theatre for Change Galway: Theatre for Change Galway uses Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) to examine social issues in order to empower people to bring about personal and social change. Their mission is to spread the use of TO as a method within communities in Ireland. Activities include ‘Train the Trainers’ workshops for professionals working within the social field and youth work. They facilitate projects using public spaces to encourage dialogue around social and community issues like ‘belonging’ and ‘inclusion’. In addition they have been involved in the dissemination of research results to the participating communities through several research projects in collaboration with University of Limerick – School of Medicine, University of Galway – School of Political Science, and the UNESCO Family Research. In addition they have delivered workshops as part of International Conferences on using Applied Drama within research and education (Scenario – TCD, DSA Ireland)
Development Perspectives: The mission of Development perspectives is to tackle poverty, inequality and climate change through transformative education and active global citizenship. Our work explores, examines and acts upon a range of issues and challenges that face our world. In order for this to work effectively, we use participatory and interactive learning methods to ensure the greatest impact for participants of our programmes.
Upstate Theatre Project: Upstate Theatre Project is a community-engaged performing arts organisation adhering to collective and collaborative approaches in keeping with principles of cultural democracy. Upstate was founded in 1997 and has pursued a collaborative, participatory practice since its inception.
Afri: Afri’s goal is the promotion of global justice and peace, and the reduction of poverty; this includes, but is not limited to, the progressive reduction of global militarisation, and responding to the threat of climate change, corporate control of resources and water, and interference with food sovereignty.
Meath Partnership: Meath Partnership is a dynamic, not-for-profit community organisation established in 2006 to deliver a range of rural, social and economic programmes across County Meath. The organisation’s services and initiatives tackle exclusion and disadvantage, playing a strategic role in the economic development of the County. All activities are guided by a bottom-up approach directly responding to the needs of the community and are available to residents and organisations living and working in Meath.