Dramatic solutions

摘要

The stage is a bus stop. The audience consists of bemused commuters. The actors are real theatre folk. The plot: a mother cradling a baby (played by a doll) boards a crowded imaginary bus. None of her fellow passengers gives up his seat. As the bus lurches, the baby slips from the mother's grasp, bouncing from one inconsiderate passenger to the next. The lesson: be nice to mothers holding infants. The impresario behind this pavement performance is the city of Bogota, Colombia's capital, which is using street theatre to discourage bad behaviour on its overtaxed transport system. There is plenty of it. Some 70,000 people a day ride the buses without paying; eight fare-dodgers died in accidents last year. More than half of women report suffering sexual harassment on the network.