The Quadrennial Congress of UASA had a gala evening with an agenda that would have any person begging for more. With a punctual start at 19:00 on Tuesday, 21 October, the master of ceremonies, the inimitable Riaan Cruywagen welcomed everyone to the start of an eventful evening. After a lovely Salmon starter The Learning Theatre Organisation’s actors took to take the stage to perform the brilliant and entertaining “Superman Goes Nowhere”.

From the first moments of the Industrial Theatre show, Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) was framed, explained and experienced. The story, as written by Ben Kruger, was told and performed by defined characters through witty conversations and humorous interactions.

At first Joey, the new employee, doesn’t like SHE and it is evident that his misconception of SHE was reinforced at his previous workplace. It is up to Cyril, the UASA safety rep, to explain SHE and attempt to convince Joey to change his warped perception of SHE. Every time that Joey tries to challenge the Health and Safety policies and procedures, Cyril the Safety rep has a perfectly logical and well thought-through explanation.

Jantji Ngwenyama as Joey the new employee	Cyril the UASA safety rep (Neil Bennet Grib) is not impressed with Joey	Neil Bennet Grib as Brian, Operations Manager

Brian, the operations manager, paints the bigger picture. He explains the holistic nature of SHE and how it can and should be applied to prevent accidents on a daily basis. Joey also meets up with Jack, a comical old school character and it is through his experience with Jack that Joey really grows to understand how important Health, Safety and the Environment really are.

Neil Bennet Grib as Jack, an “old school employee” together with Joey, the new employee (Jantji Ngwenyama)

The audience was captivated all through the show. Living Joey’s life for 30 minutes gave them an opportunity to watch attitudes and mindsets unfold into behaviour in front of their eyes. It also showed them the consequences of these negative mindsets, attitudes and behaviours. This Industrial Theatre production clearly showed the effectiveness of theatre in portraying change-related behaviour. More importantly, how uniquely Industrial Theatre can relate to people on cognitive and emotive level to create a deep learning of issues that are close to the heart.