Forum theatre by ex-gambling addicts – the Chinese family

Abstract This paper outlines a forum theatre project with recovering gambling addicts and their family members who were themselves the actors and actresses, devising and rehearsals facilitated by artists from an educational and theatre organisation. The addicts and family members came from a local counselling service centre. The researcher in this project was interested in how empowering theatre with forum sessions could be on the recovering addicts, family and student audiences from secondary schools. During the search, the devising and performance sessions were observed, and actors and audience members were interviewed. We found that both actors and audience expressed strong feelings that reflected their understanding and formation of personal and social identities, which were very much influenced by Chinese family values.