Rehearsals for revolution? Theatre of the Oppressed, dominant discourses, and democratic tensions

Empowerment and the individualisation of resistance: A Foucauldian perspective on Theatre of the Oppressed

“…This was specified by the Jokers, who told the audience that they must assume that the antagonists could not change, and that only the characters representing Waterloo residents could act differently – the actions of the government staff, ministers and others were not open for alteration. This is consistent with Boal’s original method, in which the behaviour of the protagonists (the oppressed) could be altered but the behaviour of the antagonists (the oppressors) could not (Snyder-Young, 2011). Boal cautioned that it would be ‘idealistic’ to attempt to change the attitudes and actions of the oppressor, and so, therefore, the emphasis is placed on ‘changing ourselves’ in order to effect change (O’Sullivan, 2001: 89).…”

“…The dichotomous relation between subjects which are oppressed and those which are oppressors is not merely incidental to Theatre of the Oppressed but is in fact an underlying principle that structures the format. Snyder-Young claims that in Theatre of the Oppressed, the oppression is ‘clear cut’: ‘antagonists have power, protagonists do not’ (Snyder-Young, 2011: 37). In general, characters must fall into either of these two roles, and there is little opportunity for addressing the ways in which characters might alternate roles or occupy grey spaces in between these binary positions.…”

“…Theatre of the Oppressed is intended as a framework for activism in theatre (Schutzman, 1990), aiming not just to deliver stories of the oppressed, but to engage actors and the audience in creating solutions and interventions that could alleviate oppression, improve situations and empower the oppressed. Its creator, Augusto Boal, wanted his method to be considered more than just theatre and performance – he called his method ‘a rehearsal of revolution’ (Dwyer, 2007; Schutzman, 1990; Snyder-Young, 2011) and expected the method would offer participants ‘tools for liberation’ (Österlind, 2008). Boal saw his methods as tools that could be drawn upon by marginalised communities to develop and improve strategies of resistance and to recruit others through involvement in performances.…”

Improvisational Drama as Inquiry: The Role of the Simulated-Actual in Meaning Making

“…The function of the joker has been articulated by a number of theater practitioners and researchers (Berezan, 2004; Boal, 1970, 1979 and 2002; Bowman, 1997; Hewson, 2007; Smith, 1996; Snyder-Young, 2011), each providing their own perspectives. Collectively, they offer a range of beliefs and possibilities.…”

Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the oppressed: democratising art for social transformation

“…In his book 'Games for Actors and Non-Actors', first published in English in 1992, Boal emphasised that while not a 'recipe book', it was intended for 'professional and amateur actors, by teachers and therapists, in political and social activities and research' (Boal, 2002, p. 16). His influence has indeed extended far beyond the Please note: This article is currently in press -please contact Victoria Jupp Kina (v.juppkina@dundee.ac.uk) if you wish to quote boundaries of the arts and his techniques have been adopted and adapted within children and families social work (Houston et al, 2001), within educational psychology (Hammond, 2013), within environmental justice (Sulivan et al, 2008), within schools (Snyder-Young, 2011;Coletivo Garoa, n.d.) and universities (McClimens and Scott, 2007), as a model of community development and mobilisation (GTO Maputo, n.d), for exploring participatory democracy (Pratt and Johnston, 2007) and for exploring ethics in community-based research (Banks et al, 2014). It has been used with an extraordinarily wide range of communities, including aboriginal communities (Diamond, 1994), with women as a model of feminist consciousnessraising (Akhter, 2008;Fisher, 1994) and gender violence prevention (Christensen, 2014;Mitchell and Freitag, 2011), with older people (Schweitzer, 1994) Theatre of the Oppressed is inherently interdisciplinary.…”