This article discusses how childhood as well as gendered mental health issues are represented in Swedish director Suzanne Osten’s theatre for young audiences. The article illustrates examples from two of Osten’s theatre productions: The Girl, The Mother, and the Garbage (1998, for ages seven and up) and The Baa-Lambs Holiday (2014, for ages 15 and up). The article argues that Osten’s approach and dramaturgical strategies in her theatre productions are crucial for addressing topics many consider taboo for young audiences. Osten’s theatre performances can be regarded as a collective and ongoing contribution to public media debates surrounding children’s culture and the child’s place in society at large. It contends that her theatre for young audiences can be characterized as an “archive of feelings” of childhoods that are otherwise seldom highlighted in public.

Currently, Sweden is a society marked by growing anti-immigrant sentiments and residential stigmatization. As a result, the symbolic and social gaps between in-groups and out-groups are widening. Consequently, interactions that could foster empathy and solidarity across differences have become increasingly fragile. However, artistic initiatives that counter anti-civil forces are emerging. This article focuses on theater and social inclusion by examining three interconnected elements: meaning, communication, and social change—and how they can serve as a form of civil resilience through critical reflection and recognition processes. Thus, we illuminate how theater can become a venue for social inclusion for a young, ethnically diverse audience by activating symbolic structures of meaning and emotions that recognize the inequalities present within marginalized groups and their experiences. This is achieved by investigating the professional and dramaturgical strategies employed by an artistic team establishing a new theater in a stigmatized neighborhood north of Stockholm and their efforts toward social cohesion. The analysis identifies dramaturgical strategies involving emotions, authenticity, and bodies, along with other professional strategies that work transformatively within the theater and the community, resulting in theatrical communication that allows for psycho-social identification for the audience and critical self-analysis for theater professionals, thereby holding potential for civil resilience.

Kapitlet handlar om teater som spelas i den mångetniska förorten och som tar upp frågor om utanförskap och rasism men också om kärlek och gemenskap i förorten. Författarna har intervjuat ungdomar som bor förorten och som har sett teater, och har lyssnat på de kritiska tankar om orättvisor i samhället som teaterföreställningarna väckt hos ungdomarna. Ungdomar i förorten talas det ofta mer om, än med, och i den här texten lyfter författarna fram deras samhällskritik. I samtalen om teater har ungdomarna delat med sig av erfarenheter av bristfällig, eller snarare snedvriden, medial rapportering av de bostadsområden som är deras hem. Deras erfarenheter visar hur de tvingas förhålla sig till en slags fiktiv värld av negativa idéer om platsen de lever på och vilka de själva är. Samtidigt som de upplever sin vardag inifrån sin egen erfarenhet, tvingas de förhålla sig till det vita majoritetssamhällets syn och värderingar utifrån. Det skapar en splittring i hur de ser på sig själva och sina bostadsområden. Ungdomarna berättar att fast de själva upplever gemenskap och trygghet i förorten så har de samtidigt växt upp med tanken att deras bostadsområden är sämre,smutsigare och trasigare än vad de områden är som majoritetssvenskar bor i.Ungdomarna blev därför förvånade när det, i förorten, spelas teater i fina lokaler och med hög kvalitet. De lyfter också fram att det har betydelse att det finns teater i förorten, för att det öppnar möjligheter för dem att tänka att teater kan var en del av deras framtid. De flesta är positiva till den teater som de har sett. Samtidigt har de en realistisk hållning. De tror att det är begränsat hur mycket teater kan förändra hur människor som inte bor i förorten tänker och känner kring dem och deras hem. Men det finns också de som tror att om vita svenskar från innerstaden såg samma teater som de själva sett så skulle den negativa bilden av förorten kunna luckras upp. Teaterns gestaltningar av förorten har även möjliggjort att splittringen mellan hur samhället ser på ungdomarna utifrån och hur de upplever sig inifrån blir mindre smärtsam för ungdomarna själva. Att få reflektera kring ojämlika uppväxtvillkor via en teaterupplevelse och uppleva sådan teater tillsammans med jämnåriga skapar känslor av erkännande.

The integration of Ukrainian refugee students into schools in Finland and Sweden is a crucial aspect of theiradaptation to new circumstances. This policy brief draws on a qualitative study conducted in the spring of2022 and fall of 2023, focusing on the successful practices and lessons learned in this context (Petäjäniemi,Brinch, Kaukko & Lund, forthcoming). The study emphasizes the need to improve the inclusion process forUkrainian students, which involves spreading information on effective practices, providing school staff withemotional support and training on post-traumatic stress syndrome, and facilitating peer interaction.

Historical Narratives and Contemporary Sweden in Theatre for Young Audiences. Eyewitnesses as Trauma-Drama. Children’s theatre in Sweden has a tradition of working with various political, social and existential issues. The purpose of the article is to explore the potential of children’s theater to stage an inclusive Sweden, with an empirical starting point in the theatre production Eyewitnesses. In Eyewitnesses, Young Malmö City Theatre wanted to bring to life testimonies from the Holocaust, in a city that is known for having extended problems with contemporary anti-Semitism. Eyewitnesses is based on true life stories and aimed at a young audience aged 13-18. The article examines wether Eyewitnesses has the potential to contribute to increased intercultural understanding and respect for human rights, focusing on the emotions that the performance evokes. In the article, I employ theories about cultural trauma and trauma-drama, and focus on the dramaturgical choices that are made, and the young audience’s reception. The article’s empricial basis consists of performance observations, audience observations, and interviews with the young audience. The article shows that Eyewitnesses not only has the potential to function as a historical narrative, but reflections are also awakened about contemporary social traumas and sufferings. At the same time, a discrepancy in the image of contemporary Sweden is revealed. Some informants highlight Sweden as an equal country characterized by freedom, while others identify issues of racism and segregation. From this perspective, three different images emerge: one where racism is seen as something that primarily happens outside Sweden's borders, one that highlights segregation and that we live in a racist society, and finally a third, which is also the dominant one, where critical reflection on current issues of inequality is sparked from the encounter with the theatre performance. In this way, Eyewitnesses has the potential to function as a trauma-drama, depending on the emotions that the performance evokes.