Background  

People who understand their own realities can change them. This core belief underpins the work of the Lakhon Komnit Organization (LKO), a Battambang-based grassroots theatre group dedicated to putting unheard voices centre stage. Lakhon Komnit means “Thinking Theatre” in Khmer and LKO works at the intersections of artistic and social development, using theatre to increase inclusion, develop critical thinking, and transform conflict mitigation.

As Cambodia’s leading practitioner of Forum Theatre and Theatre of the Oppressed, LKO’s participatory methodologies engage trainees and audience members as critical thinkers and active agents of change. With a core ethos of increasing access and representation, LKO’s plays are grounded in personal stories, developed with affected communities, and performed by grassroots actors. LKO’s interactive performances, where audience members can interrupt the play and replace actors on-stage, facilitate cross-hierarchy dialogue to develop viable, sustainable solutions for positive change.

Since forming in 2017 and registering as an NGO in 2019, LKO’s program has grown to encompass development of plays, training courses, touring productions, and participatory action research. LKO has partnered with a wide range of communities, local and national authorities, and civil society organisations (CSOs) to develop culturally sensitive programs for community engagement, awareness raising, behaviour change, and conflict mitigation transformation. LKO’s work elevates the voices of marginalised people as collaborators, including women facing violence, people with disabilities, LGBTQI+ individuals, rural farmers, youth, elderly people, and those affected by human trafficking, family separation, and addiction.

Main Activities

Training and capacity building: LKO offers a range of comprehensive training programs designed to empower individuals and organisations with the skills of social theatre, including:

  • Community empowerment: Combining Forum Theatre training and rights awareness to help marginalised community members build trusting relationships, critically reflect on challenges, and create and perform plays that amplify their experiences for multi-stakeholder audiences.
  • Incubating peer support groups: Identifying, training, and supporting “Community Key Actors” to form and lead sustainable action groups which conduct peer-to-peer theatre-based interventions in communities.
  • Intensive courses: Providing short, intensive courses (1-5 days) on Theatre of the Oppressed and theatre for peacebuilding to youth, marginalised people, artists, and the general public.
  • Customised Training of Trainers: Designing and delivering courses to develop skills in participatory learning, from curriculum design to facilitation and evaluation.

Play creation: Creating and developing new scripts and stories, with direct personal experiences of affected communities used as primary source material, and informed by broader research from evidence-based, rigorous, reputable sources.

Forum Theatre performances in community spaces: Bringing plays to community spaces is a cornerstone of LKO’s approach, removing barriers to artistic, social, and political participation. Locations include parks, gardens, pagodas, school playgrounds, and community buildings.

NGO partnerships: As an implementing partner to local and international non-governmental organisations (NGOs), LKO creates and tours topic-based Forum Theatre shows, engaging target audiences in community settings across Cambodia. These projects often involve behaviour-change interventions and action research.

Conducting research: Using participatory action research to create stories for new scripts and plays, and to conduct community consultations for needs assessments and inclusive policy development.

Partnership with Ponlok Chomnes II

Under the Ponlok Chomnes Innovation Fund Round 2, LKO will trial the use of Legislative Theatre to conduct inclusive dialogue on disabled people’s access to public services and spaces.

A new Forum Theatre play will be developed, informed by participatory research that highlights disabled people’s experiences and will be performed by disabled and grassroots actors. The Forum Theatre will be one component of the Legislative Theatre process, engaging a diverse range of stakeholders – including disabled and non-disabled community members, CSOs, local authorities, government ministries, and policy experts – in generating solutions, policy proposals, and revisions. The project will have a close reference to Cambodia’s 2009 Law on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (currently under amendment) and the National Disability Strategic Plan 2024-2028, seeking practical solutions to support and strengthen implementation.

Findings will be shared with stakeholders, including ministries, disability networks, CSOs, local authorities, and the general public, through a documentary film, a written report, and in-person presentations.

Please click here for more information about LKO.