Dramatising a crisis of existence

Exterminism and the Arena Drama Group remembered.

The Arena Drama Group emerged in the 1980s. It seemed a bolt out of the blue. Arising out of deep feeling and under standing, it moved those who directly participated in its dramas and it moved people in the anti-nuclear marches of the time as few street dramas of those times did. It was especially unusual in the way it emerged. While all drama relies upon creative individual artists, the balance for the Arena Drama Group was somewhat different. There was a strong sense it which it was a shared project at many levels, including social and cultural understandings that arose out of intense, ethically engaged discussion that sought to address growing feelings of disturbance. While the shared setting is important to keep in mind, the group would not have emerged without the energies of creative individuals. One was the late Helen Sharp. Her contribution to the Arena Drama Group was a foretaste of her later dramatic work.