Staging Maralinga and looking for community (or why we must desire community before we can find it)

The concept of ‘community’ is often presented as a way of overcoming exclusion and this dominates many community cultural development projects including those drawing on the tradition of ‘applied theatre’. Drawing on personal experience of staging an applied theatre project, Maralinga, which details the exposure of veterans to nuclear fallout, this paper problematises the concept of community based on some ‘natural’ affiliation or recognition. It argues that a more complex analysis is needed to understand how communities come together and expand based on reciprocated desire. Community based on desire, rather than recognition, allows people from vastly divergent experiences to come together and connect despite differences. The paper concludes by reflecting on the implications for applied theatre practitioners.