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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33. Empatheatre: Social Sculpture & Feeling Across Worlds - with Dylan McGarry