Download Intro to Boal Image Forum Theatre

Theatre of the Oppressed
http://www.theatreoftheoppressed.org/en/index.php
To explore the possibilities of
Boal’s Forum Theatre as a practice
of liberation.
Can theatre empower its audience
to become participants & to make
changes rather than remaining
passive spectators?
Boal’s vision on theatre
Informed by his homeland - political unrest and
injustices and its effect on ordinary people.
Belief in the power of theatre to stimulate change.
Belief that ordinary people can become active.
Theatre can be ‘ a rehearsal for revolution’
Boal’s critique of Brecht’s
theatre
• Epic Theatre lacks dialogue
• Didactic / Passive spectator
• ‘agit prop’ theatre
It is the lack of dialogue of agit prop theatre that formed
the catalyst for Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed.
Influenced by
Brecht’s ‘Epic Theatre’
• Theatre can expose the ‘myth’
• Humans are a product of their social and
economic world.
• Characters ‘demonstrate’ their social
positioning.
• Struggles between oppressed and oppressors
‘Theatre of the Oppressed’ or
‘People’s Theatre.
• Political - social and material reality of
oppression.
“We tried to show how in practice how theatre can
be placed at the service of the oppressed” (TOP Boal
1970: 121)
• Participatory
“ To change the people ‘spectators’, passive beings
in the theatrical phenomenon into subjects, actors,
transformers of the dramatic action”
‘Theatre of the Oppressed’ or
‘People’s Theatre.
• Change:
• Theatre can enable people to become critically aware of
their social situation. In using theatre to analyse and
reflect on this social reality participants may feel
empowered to make changes in their lives. (Preston
2002)
• Theatre can be a ‘rehearsal for revolution’ (TOP Boal
1970)
How?
• Spect-actor
– giving the spectator the means of production
– Boal achieved a theatre that Brecht only
dreamed of.
• Image Theatre:
* Spectator expresses opinion/feelings by ‘sculpting’
the bodies of other participants.
* Second image – IDEAL image
* Third image – TRANSITIONAL image
* Emphasis on PROCESS OF TRANSFORMATION
• Invisible Theatre:
* Staged in public spaces as ‘real’
* Creates current political debate
How? Theatrical Strategies
• Forum Theatre
– A performance game
– Theatrical Debate.
– Depicts a problem of political and social injustice
between oppressed and oppressor.
– The search for alternatives to an oppressive, unjust
intolerable situation.
Forum Theatre
• Relevance
the play needs to have relevance to the audience a a
whole.
It is not just an individual problem but an issue of social
concern.
• Provocation
The play needs to provoke the audience. We see the
character defeated by the problem
• Ending is unsatisfactory
A question is made to the audience. Can you accept this
unsatisfactory ending?
What could the protagonist do to avoid this fate?
• Play is performed again.
The audience shouts STOP! when they see oppression
occurring.
Because of its relevance the audiences are provoked into
action.
• Audience becomes a spect-actor!
Because of its relevance the audience are provoked into
taking on the oppressed characters role and through
leaping up on the stage can explore situations to the
oppressed situation.
The spect-actor faces the oppressor and tries to outwit
the oppressor with his/her strategy.
• Joker
A ‘joker’ facilitates the process mediating between the
audience and the actors.
Explains that the purpose is not necessarily to find the
correct solution
Must watch out for ‘magic’ solutions.
The Applications of Forum
Theatre
• Political / social
– needs a homogeneous audience
• Therapeutic
– works with the problem of an individual
• Legislative
– theatre making politics
Forum Theatre : A development tool.
Small World Theatre (TFD)
• A tool for self development and empowerment.
• Enabling theatre to be placed in the hands of ordinary
people.
• Through a drama process participants can experience,
analyse and reflect on social & political issues
• Through theatre to enable people find a voice, to use
theatre to tell their stories and use their voice to effect
change
• Forum theatre changes according to context.
• Forum Theatre is applied in different ways.
– Theatre for a community
• A theatre company presents a play to a community
about their (the community’s) reality. (TIE play)
– Theatre by a community
• A community creates a play about its reality
(TFD, some community based theatre, TIE)
Challenges of Forum Theatre?…
Making bodies talk in Forum Theatre
(Paul Dwyer: Research in Drama Education Vol9,No.2 Sep’04)
Feminist Acts: Women, pedagogy & Theatre
of the Oppressed
(Bernice Fisher: Playing Boal )