The “lived” experience of Playback Theatre practitioners in post-war Sri Lanka: naivety, altruism, reciprocal caring, and psychological growth

Background: Playback Theatre is applied theatre that draws on real-life stories from its audience to reflect the psychosocial needs of individuals and communities. Contemporarily it is being used to support those exposed to war/disaster; however, the impact of such work on its practitioners, is under researched. Methods: Using interpretative phenomenological analysis positive and negative subjective interpretations were sought from five Western Playback Theatre practitioners who taught in post-civil war Sri Lanka. Results: One superordinate theme, Naivety, Humility and Hope amongst the Rubble, encompassed five subordinate themes. These reveal an integral struggle experienced by Western practitioners unprepared for a culturally different lens. Conclusion: Teaching Playback Theatre in post-war Sri Lanka for these practitioners exposed the gap between the desire to help cross-culturally and their experienced reality. Over time, the collision of Western naivety with good intent facilitated an integral and humble search to be wiser humanitarians cross-culturally in these participants.