Lifeworlds 33. Empatheatre: Social Sculpture & Feeling Across Worlds
In this episode, we explore the role of theatre and empathy in transforming worldviews. Dr. Dylan McGarry is one of the founders of Empatheatre, a South African theatre-making company and methodology that turns research and storytelling into living social sculpture. Their plays create what they call amphitheatres for empathy - spaces where art, ritual, and dialogue help people listen across difference, from mining conflicts to ocean governance to human-wildlife coexistence.
Empatheatre’s productions have brought together communities, policymakers, and activists that rarely meet, showing how imagination can transform civic life. The process of creating the plays generates profound potentials for restorative justice. As Dylan says, empathy is not about agreement, but about creating a vessel strong enough to hold our differences while keeping us in relation.
We will cover:
- Empathy as a creative act
- Theatre and storytelling as Trojan horses that open conversations that traditional politics often can’t
- How to design spaces that allow lifeworlds to touch and the practices that help us shift into another’s perspective
- How empathy, when practiced collectively, becomes a form of governance: a new infrastructure for democracy and care
Episode website
Links:
- Share your input for the whale production
- Empatheatre
- Dylan’s PHD
- 5min Empatheatre doc
- Indlela Yokuphila: The Soul's Journey (ZULU) film & the radio play used in the court case
- Lalela Ulwandle Trailer
- Umkhosi Wenala doc about Zulu musical on indigenous traditions & animist relationships
- Steiner’s 12 senses
- MOTH
- Project CETI
- Karen Bakker
- Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals
- One Ocean Hub
- dylanmcgarry.org
- Instagram: @dylan_mcgarry
Photo Credit: Casey Pratt. It captures a significant moment in a collaborative theatre-making & storytelling project titled "Umkhosi Wenala"
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