Laban / Beirut, Lebanon

Once upon a time, a group of ex-ISIS soldiers walked into an improv theatre...

Art has an immense power to transform lives. Dramatic evidence of this rises miraculously in places like Lebanon, where decades of war and civil strife would seem to crush any hopes of beauty and cultural expression. But hope indeed rises through the power of empathy.

Beirut’s Laban Theatre is an art-pacification organisation that uses improv and the dramatic arts as tools to foster peace and community in a region that struggles with ongoing social, political and religious divisions. 

After first opening their doors in 2007, Laban’s founders identified the pressing issues behind these divisions and sought to face them head on. Using the art of theatre, they cultivated a warm and tolerant space to address such topics as marital rape, corruption, and the ongoing refugee crisis. It’s one of the few places where these taboo topics are even mentioned, let alone identified as festering social wounds that require healing. Further, it extends a welcome hand to marginalised groups such as women, refugees, and members of the LGBTQ+ community. 

Much of the healing takes place in Laban’s “playshops” - not workshops, but playshops. These consist of improv games and other exercises that help participants build communion, improve listening skills, break stereotypes and bring the best out of one another. 

The idea is interesting enough, but it takes on a revolutionary dimension when we look at the diverse groups Laban is able to attract. For instance, Lebanese citizens and Syrian refugees often play together here, something that simply doesn’t happen very often as the divide between these communities is deep. Beyond their political and religious differences, resentment is so high that some Syrian refugee camps have been burned to the ground. 

Other stirring examples arise from Laban’s Playback Theatre model, where audience members share personal stories which are re-enacted onstage through improvised performance. Personal stories thus become community stories, and bonds are formed that might never have existed. In one instance, this exercise spawned a relationship between a Lebanese and a Syrian woman who ended up as business partners, making and selling homemade food.

Then one day, a group of ex-Islamic State soldiers walked into an improv theatre. 

In partnership with The Office of Transition Initiatives, Laban provided a series of Playback Theatre sessions for an audience that consisted mostly of current and former ISIS soldiers along with their family members. The aim was to use art and entertainment to get these people to question some of their beliefs, and perhaps quell the extremist ideologies behind so much of the region’s instability. 

The next day, three ISIS members who had attended the show turned themselves in to authorities.

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