exercise · all tools

Insults

Depth · what it can open●●○○2 — reflective
Holding · facilitation2 — facilitator
Trust · group readiness★★★established
Disclosure · what is sharednone

Two groups each write a list of insults. Then pairs play a plain shop scene — buying and selling, nothing else — and run it again adding an insult to the end of every line, and again repeating each insult back, outraged. The source's stated purpose is actor's resilience: the insults themselves are not interesting, what is interesting is whether anyone is actually offended.

Hold with care
  • Participants write the insults themselves, so the material is whatever the group supplies — which is the risk, and a leader who does not read the lists first is not holding this
  • An insult aimed at a character lands on a person when it happens to be true, and the exercise gives no way to say so mid-scene
  • Not for a group with any live conflict in it, and not for one that has not agreed to this beforehand

Practical

Time
min
Group
4 · pairs, large-group
Settings
in-person
Mechanisms
behavioral-rehearsal, emotional-processing, cognitive-reframing
Change scope
state → skill · repeatable

Instructions

Where
xn--dramavningar-8ib.se/forolampningar Dramaövningar.se, open
Availability
Open online — published at the link, free to read

Source link checked 1 Sep 2026 — reachable

This directory describes and points home; the instructions stay with the people who made them.

Origin

Martin Wiss (published as 'Martin' on dramaövningar.se) — Swedish dramapedagogik

In this directory via Dramaövningar.se

status: checked · added 2026-09-01