This article explores the relationship between social justice and Playback Theatre practice. In lieu of a diffractive approach, this study breaks away from representational forms of research such as the traditional literature review. Instead, the author strives to review the selected studies as alive and dynamic, with the ability to activate new insights when creatively played with and re-examined. This review traces selected Playback Theatre research that has sought a deeper understanding of empathy in Playback Theatre practice and its relationship with social justice. The author foregrounds what has resulted from these studies regarding empathy in Playback Theatre and their relationship with Nancy Fraser’s social justice model, particularly the cultural dimension of recognition. This review offers a social justice definition relevant to Playback Theatre while seeking to explore how this informs the artistic dimension of Playback Theatre enactments.

This article explores how whiteness is enacted and negotiated from the perspective of a conductor in a Playback Theatre performance (PT). The article addresses how PT provides a stage for exercising opportunities for doing white differently in post-apartheid South Africa. It argues that Doing white differently takes place by recognising a distinction between the subjectivity of white individuals and the historic, colonial representations of whiteness in South Africa. Drawing on second-wave critical whiteness studies and agential realism, this article discusses the author's attempt to engage in a diffractive moment related to racial identities during a performance for university students.

This chapter explores a stop moment in light of a story told during a Playback Theatre performance (PT) in South Africa. The inquiry guiding this chapter asks: How may diffractive encounters through a stop moment in PT illuminate possibilities for dissensus? The stop moment is examined to reveal how the distribution of the sensible has impact on women’s lives in post-apartheid South Africa, through the eyes of two Drama for Life Playback Theatre members: Kathy as conductor and Cheraé who was one of the actors. It argues that for PT performers to redistribute the distribution of the sensible and to stage dissensus requires a recognition and understanding of power on multiple levels.

The author draws attention to Playback Theatre’s ability to translate stories that speak to social injustice in South Africa. When the Playback Theatre ensemble intra-acts with stories, it encourages affective consciousness through social artistry. This is crucial in highlighting the potential of Playback Theatre to stage stories that steer away from reductionist portrayals. The author undertakes a diffractive analysis of two stories within the performance that concerns the contestation of gender roles and patriarchy in South Africa. Narrative reticulation and intra-actions are employed to reveal how performative translations in Playback Theatre provide an opportunity to magnify issues pertaining to social justice.