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Theatre can entertain - and it can also foment change in society. In fact, if theatre's sole purpose were entertainment, it would not have survived the advent of film and television.

Witness the Mekong Arts and Media Festival from November 23 to 27 in Phnom Penh.

Arts groups in the Mekong region have benefited in recent years from funding and workshops organised by the Philippine Educational Theatre Association (Peta), whose Mekong Partnership Project supports initiatives aimed at social transformation.

The Mekong festival will have performances, conferences, skill-building workshops, exhibits, film screenings and other events giving full rein to creative expression to address current and emerging social issues facing the people living along the Mekong River.

Three Thai troupes - Crescent Moon Theatre, Khandha Arts 'n Theatre and Wandering Moon Performing Group and Endless Journey - will be in the Cambodian capital presenting works created with Peta grants.

Sineenadh Keitprapai, artistic director of Crescent Moon and recipient of the Silpathorn Award in 2008, tells us that her company has worked with Peta for decades.

At the Mekong Performing Arts Laboratory in 2006 in Hanoi, she collaborated on a piece with fellow actresses Farida Jaruphand, Jarunun Phatachat and Suwandee Suanpholrat that evolved with Peta's help into "Purgatory" ("Fai Lang Bap" in Thai), dealing with women's issues.

It was staged at the 2007 Bangkok Theatre Festival and toured universities, shaking up audiences, and will be revived at the festival in Phnom Penh, albeit without Jarunun, who's working in Tokyo.

Monthatip Suksopha's Chiang Mai-based shadow-puppet troupe Wandering Moon was invited to perform "Butterfly" at the 2004 Asia-Pacific Women's Festival, its first venture overseas.

The Mekong Partnership Project blossomed soon after that, and Wandering Moon has played an increasingly larger role in its workshops ever since.

"We've learned a lot and developed a great deal," says Monthatip, "not only in artistic skills but also organisational and managerial ones."

Wandering Moon will present its new work, "Reborn of the Butterfly", in Phnom Penh.

"It's slightly different from the two works that were supported by the project, 'The Untold Story' and 'Forgotten Memory', both of which were continuations of 'Butterfly'," Monthatip says.

"Many people now think we only work on gender issues. Well, we're an all-women troupe, but we work on other issues as well.

"In 'Reborn', we're taking a more neutral view and looking at the relationship between men and women as yin and yang."

Butoh-trained performer and director Sonoko Prow, artistic director of Khandha Arts 'n Theatre, participated in the third Mekong Performing Arts Laboratory in 2007.

"During those three weeks I learned that advocacy wasn't as scary as I'd thought. When we want to change something or someone, we should start by studying ourselves - and conducting thorough research into the real situation."

Sonoko's "Mae Nam", seen in 2007, recruited residents of Battambang for the cast of a piece dealing with Aids. It fuelled a larger production called "For Little Less Noise: Maenam" the following year, which was also supported by the project.

"Mae Nam" was presented at Patravadi Theatre and Chiang Mai and Mae Fah Luang universities, along with workshops on both the content and the performance style.

"The reactions varied at different venues," Sonoko says. "In Chiang Rai, partly because we had a slide show explaining Butoh, the performance moved some viewers to tears. In Bangkok most people saw it in terms of production values, concentrating more on the movement than the issues."

Peta's Mekong Partnership Project, she says, has helped the troupe "continuously develop our artistic skills and creation process in the past two years".

"And the audience is exposed to a new style of performance and new social issues. Some people, like HIV patients, realise they can actually do more than they think, and that's similar to what our members have felt through this self-realisation process."

Khandha Arts 'n Theatre will perform "For Little Less Noise: Maenam" at the Mekong Festival.

The festival is a Peta collaboration with Phare Ponleu Selpak, Save the Children UK's Cross Border Project and the Centre for Community Health Research and Development.

Funding comes from the Rockefeller Foundation, European Union, Japan Foundation, Heinrich Boell Foundation-Southeast Asia, Terres des Hommes and Ambassade au France de Cambodge.

How does Peta, an organisation based in the Philippines - outside the Mekong region - secure grants from America and Europe?

"I was wondering about that too," Sonoko laughs. "I guess it's partly because they're well established, with more than three decades in this field, and can communicate very efficiently in English.

"Plus, since they're also artists, they understand their fellow artists like us from Thailand."

A chance to shine

The Mekong Festival of Arts and Media is from November 23 to 27 in Phnom Penh. Get the details at www.Mekong-ArtsFest2009.com.

For more information about the participants, see www.PETATheater.com, www.CrescentMoonTheatre.com, www.KhandhaArts.org and www.WanderingMoonTheatre.com.