Making amends: an interventionist theatre programme with young offenders

Abstract

This article discusses a project established at the New Vic Borderlines by Sue Moffat in 1999 titled Making Amends. It is an example of interventionist theatre undertaken with young offenders. The article draws on theories of restorative justice as well as ideas of learning development found in social constructivism in order to evaluate the theatre work and inform the evidence-based research that has emerged from the author's observations of the practice. It highlights some of the challenges that a theatre project such as Making Amends meets when evidencing value and the benefits of embodied and experiential learning to the participants.