Performing Young Adults’ Reflections on Work, Citizenship, and Democracy

Can theatre be a significant arena for reflections on work as an essential part of life for youth and young adults? This chapter reports on an arts-based research project that involved a cultural centre (ISAK) and participants aged 15–30 over a period of seven months. The overall framing perspective was an ethos of equality and a concept of dissensus inspired by the works of Jacques Rancière. The chapter discusses in particular Democratic forum, a workshop designed so the participants could reflect on, and perform, dreams, questions and challenges concerning work as part of their life and future. It also incorporated the development of exercises as well as the use of artistic ensemble, focal point and metaphor for further dramaturgical work. In the making of the performance Happy Land 2048, strategies for post-dramatic dramaturgy were applied, and this chapter discusses how experiences from Democratic forum can also be transformed into aesthetic experiences for an audience. Throughout an interactive performative event, the audience was co-performing in six different functions.