Applied theatre as a co‐creative methodology for more convivial knowledge production in refugee‐receiving communities

This article explores, based on hands‐on experience, how applied theatre may serve as a co‐creative mutually and actively negotiated—convivial—method of knowledge production in refugee‐receiving societies. In this article, we argue that it only makes sense to conceptually understand relational processes of how we manage to live together, and interrogate structural mechanisms of exclusion, if we also embrace a move towards relational and mutually and actively negotiated—in short, convivial—methods of knowledge production (cf. Merlín‐Escorza, 2024). However, despite increased interest, examples of methodological innovations and instructions on the how of co‐creative knowledge production “are more difficult to locate” (Shea, 2024, p. 2). Based on an applied theatre and research project, we discuss three distinct processes through which we think applied theatre can serve as a convivial co‐creative method. We make a case for creating and holding space for embodied, relational, negotiated knowledges to emerge and discuss conditions that can facilitate this.