This forum looks at a particular effect that is often claimed both ritual and theatre: that of healing or reconiclliation, whether social, political, or personal. In this forum, we bring together artsits who work both inside and outside what might be seen as the ‘applied’ theatre world to discuss what that healing or reconciliation might look like, and the challenges and problems with the way it can be thought about and executed. I would venture that most readers of this forum would be loath to abandon the claim that performance has the potential to offer some sort of social healing, but the critical examination here of just what sort of healing is possible, and how it might operate, can help us make better sense of the limits and possibilities of such claim.