Theatre of the Oppressed

Augusto Boal

Originally based at the Arena Stage in Sao Paolo, Brazil, Augusto Boal developed a series of imaginative theatre exercises, which promote awareness of one’s social situation and its limitations and individual attitudes. Theatre of the Oppressed combines analysis and practice, making it indispensable to those interested in dramatic theory as well as performance technique.

The book offers an overview of the history of dramatic theory beginning with Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hegel and Brecht’s Epic theatre; each theory is presented in the context of the predominant philosophical thinking of each specific period. While in all idealist poetics (Hegel, Aristotle, etc.) the character is born with all his faculties and is already predisposed to feel and act in certain ways, Brecht’s theory is that “human nature” does not exist, and therefore nobody is what he is “just because”. Boal refers to various examples from well-known dramatic literature.

In this context Boal shows how theatre can be a very efficient weapon and has been discovered as a tool by the ruling classes for domination, which he calls 'coercive indoctrination'. Therefore 'all theatre is necessarily political.' Before the ruling classes took possession of the theatre there was no division of people into actors and spectators, everybody alike took part in the event. He states that people have to reclaim the theatre as their own, reassume their protagonistic function in the theatre and in society. Unlike Aristotle’s poetics in which the spectator delegates the power to the dramatic character, or Brecht’s poetics in which the spectator delegates power to the characters who thus act in his place whilst the spectator reserves the right to think for himself, the poetic of the oppressed focuses on action itself. 'The spectator delegates no power to the character (or actor) either to act or to think in his place; on the contrary, he himself assumes the protagonic role, changes the dramatic action, tries out solutions, discusses plans for change- in short, trains himself for real action. In this case, perhaps the theatre is not revolutionary in itself, but is surely a rehearsal for the revolution'.

The book reports about Boal’s theatre experiments, such as the 'People’s Theatre in Peru' that was part of the national literary campaign 'Operacion Alfabetizacion Integral' with the objective of eradicating illiteracy within the span of four years. Boal here related his personal experience as a participant in the theatrical sector and outlined the various experiments they made in considering the theatre as language, capable of being utilized by any person with or without artisitc talent.

With his theatre experiments Boal successfully gives people a voice to express themselves, and educates them to become active citizens. The theatre experiments go beyond fictional actions but significantly influence how one acts in other parts of life. Theatre is successfully used here as a language of social inclusion and participatory citizenship.

1985, Theatre Communications Group, New York, 197pp, ISBN 0 930452 49 6

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