Theatre of the Oppressed

As illiteracy has been shown to be a weapon of the ruling class, so Augusto Boal shows theatre to be a weapon, not only of bourgeois control but of revolution. He demonstrates the ways in which theatre has come to reflect ruling-class control, drawing on the theories of Aristotle and Machiavelli. He then shows the process reversed in Brechtian/Marxist poetics. All the theory is related to his own experience of revolutionary theatre in Latin America, and illustrated with practical examples of exercises and games used in the People's Theatre of Peru. This is now a classic text on radical drama. Boal restores theatre to its proper place as a popular form of communication and expression, and points to the revolutionary potential of transforming the spectator into the actor.

Is the fundamental relationship between an actor and an audience an equal and active one, or is it a situation that encourages passivity and division? This is the question at the heart of Augusto Boal's revolutionary ITheatre of the Oppressed/I, originally published in 1979. Boal, a Brazilian artist and activist, has written a work that challenges the very premise of Western theater, starting with Aristotle and the first dramatists, and explores what social constructs lie behind the traditional theater form. Then, having explained such often invoked (but rarely scrutinized) terms as Iimitation/I, Itragedy/I, and Ijustice/I, he puts forward a new type of drama that bridges the long-existing gap between theater and politics. Central to his thesis is an attempt to bring spectators into an active role with the drama, encouraging them to comment on the social situations they see presented and suggest potentials for change. Other chapters explore the writings of Hegel and Brecht, along with a lengthy analysis of one of the most profound political thinkers to ever pen a play, Machiavelli and his bitter comedy IMandragola/I. Boal's book is a challenging one for American actors often politically naive and heavily schooled in the traditions of Stanislavsky-based "naturalism," but this text is vital reading for activists, progressives, and all artists trying to effect social change. I--John Longenbaugh/I