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Augusto Boal
and the
Theatre of the Oppressed
“Wouldn’t it be wonderful to see a dance
piece where in the first half the
dancers danced, and in the second they
showed the audience how to dance?
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to see a musical
where in the first half the actors sang,
and in the second we all sang together?”
“For me this is how magicians should be:
first they should do their magic to
enchant us, then they should teach us
their tricks.
This is also how artists should be- we
should be creators and we should also
teach the public how to be creators,
how to make art, so that we may all use
that art together.”
Augusto Boal
April 16, 1931- May 2, 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOgv91qQyJc&f
eature=PlayList&p=DF754417F264BC13&playn
ext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=46
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXutHbXGQfg&f
eature=PlayList&p=DF754417F264BC13&index
=47&playnext=2&playnext_from=PL
Artists should
“help others to stimulate inside
themselves the artists that lie within.”
“We all are theatre,
even if we don’t make theatre.”
It is fundamental to Boal’s work that anyone can act
and that theatrical performances should not be solely
the province of professionals. The dual meaning of
the word ‘act’, to perform and to take action, is also
at the heart of the work.
Three main categories of
Theatre of the Oppressed:
1. Image Theatre
2. Invisible Theatre
3. Forum Theatre
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It is never didactic to its audience
Involves a process of learning together rather than
one-way teaching
It assumes that there is much likelihood of the
audience knowing the answers as the performers
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IMAGE
THEATRE
A series of exercises and games
designed to uncover essential
truths about societies and cultures
without resort, in the first
instance, to spoken language
The participants make still images
of their lives, feelings, experiences,
oppressions
Groups suggest titles or themes,
and then individuals ‘sculpt’ threedimensional images under these
titles, using their own and others’
bodies as the ‘clay’
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The image work never remains staticthe frozen image is simply the starting
point to the action- the dynamisation
process, the bringing to life of the
images and the discovery of whatever
direction or intention is innate in them.
Images work across language and
culture barriers and frequently reveal
unexpected universalities
Can be more democratic as it does not
privilege more verbally articulate
people
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsUU5lT2h0s&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djTEp5RfrJU
INVISIBLE THEATRE
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Public theatre which involves the public as
participants in the action without their
knowing it
They are the ‘spect-actors’
Theatre does not take place in a theatre
building or other obvious theatrical context,
with an audience which does not know its an
audience
Several actors rehearse a scene which they
can play in an appropriate pubic space
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The scene usually involves an unexpected
subversion of ‘normal’ behaviour within that
particular society
In reaction to the incidents in the scene, the
public becomes involved in an argument, usually
aided by a couple of agents-provocateurs
actors mingling with the public and expressing
extreme and opposite reactions to the events
of the scene
Way of using theatre to stimulate debate,
getting people to question issues in a public
forum
The audience is free to take any position it
wants, and has no feeling of being preached at.
It asks questions without dictating the
answers.
•
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FORUM THEATRE
A theatrical game in which a problem is shown
in an unsolved form, to which the audience,
again spect-actors, is invited to suggest and
enact solutions.
The problem is always the symptom of an
oppression, and generally involves visible
oppressors and a protagonist who is oppressed.
After one showing of
the play ‘the model’ it is
shown again slightly
speeded up, and follows
the exact same course
until a member of the
audience shouts ‘Stop!’,
takes the place of the
protagonist and tries to
defeat the oppressors.
The game is a form of contest between spect-actors trying
to bring the play to a different end (in which the cycle of
oppression is broken) and actors ostensibly making every
possible effort to bring it to its original end (in which the
oppressed is beaten and the oppressors are triumphant).
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The process is presided over by the ‘Joker’- whose
job is to ensure a smooth running of the game and
teach the audience the rules, however, like all
participants can be replaced if the spect-actors
think they aren’t doing a good enough job.
Many different solutions are enacted in the course
of a single forum- the result is a pooling of
knowledge, tactics and experience, and at the same
time what Boal calls a ‘rehearsal for reality’
• Used in schools, factories,
day centres, community
centres, with tenants’
groups, homeless people,
disabled people, people in
ethnic minorities, and so
on- anywhere where there
is a community which
shares an oppression.
• Its aim is to always
stimulate debate (in the
form of action, not just
words), to show
alternatives, to enable
people ‘to become the
protagonists of their own
lives’.
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BOAL’S PHILOSOPHY
Boal doesn’t like labels or people
categorizing his work as ‘Marxist’ or
‘Brechtian’ as they are limiting and eliminate
the possibility of change or individuality.
In sympathy with the oppressed in any
situation and the belief in humanity’s ability
to change
Sees the ‘Theatre of the Oppressed’ as only
one of many forms of theatre, not the only
one, but one which can live happily alongside
the others.
About acting rather than talking,
questioning rather than giving answers,
analysing rather than accepting
Theatre as a force for change.