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Theatre of the Oppressed

Augusto Boal,

Charles A. McBride (Translation)

4.23 · Rating details · 1,214 ratings · 36 reviews

"Boal and his work are marvelous examples of the post-modern situation-its problems and its opportunities. Twice exiled, Boal is 'at home' now wherever he finds himself to be. He makes a skeptical, comic, inquisitive and finally optimistic theatre involving spectators and performers in the search for community and integrity. This is a good book to be used even more than to ...more

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Paperback, 208 pages

Published January 1st 1993 by Theatre Communications Group (first published January 1st 1977)

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Oct 16, 2016 Sunny rated it it was amazing

Shelves: art, philosophy, south-american-literature

6 stars. Super highly recommended if you are of the type that likes to do things differently. If you just like to roll with the roles and chill and float with the times you will not like some of the simple suggestions this book makes about changing the status quo which the world is currently frozen in. In a nutshell it’s by a South American dude who suggests the use of theatre to start a revolution. He basically surmises that theatre has typically and conventionally been created by the bourgeois 6 stars. Super highly recommended if you are of the type that likes to do things differently. If you just like to roll with the roles and chill and float with the times you will not like some of the simple suggestions this book makes about changing the status quo which the world is currently frozen in. In a nutshell it’s by a South American dude who suggests the use of theatre to start a revolution. He basically surmises that theatre has typically and conventionally been created by the bourgeoisie for a bourgeoisie who then go ahead and foist the ideas they have learnt and come across subliminally and subconsciously and I dare say in some cases consciously onto their sequacious minions who work for them – the common people essentially. The book gives multiple examples of how theatre can be used as a blueprint for true revolutionary action. The book was published in 1974 when all things were not that hunky dorey in South America and all sorts of "dick"tators were doing their rounds in that region. Boal’s theory was that the physical rehearsal of spectators getting up off their backsides in theatres and directing and potentially even joining in the plays could be a precursor for them to act our more larger and more directed forms of resistance in the real world. When you read something cool you may post it on Facebook / twitter and wait patiently for all the likes and feel vaguely happy about your proactive cyber self. When you act out an action in some form of theatre environment you have rehearsed the act itself –it’s a step close to carrying out the real thing. Some of the key bits in the book were as follows:
• Poetry is the first lesson that the State must teach the child; poetry is superior to philosophy because the latter is addressed to a minority while the former is addressed to the masses.’ Plato, on the contrary, thought that the poets should be expelled from a perfect republic because ‘poetry only makes sense when it exalts the figures and deeds that should serve as examples; theatre imitates the things of the world, but the world is no more than a mere imitation of ideas – thus theatre comes to be an imitation of an imitation’.
• If there is inequality, no one wants it to be to his disadvantage. It is necessary to make sure that all remain, if not uniformly satisfied, at least uniformly passive with respect to those criteria of inequality. How to achieve this? Through the many forms of repression: politics, bureaucracy, habits, customs – and Greek tragedy.
• In the film It Happened One Night, in a certain scene the actor Clark Gable takes off his shirt and reveals that he does not wear an undershirt. It was enough to bring several manufacturers of this article to bankruptcy as they lost those customers who were members of the various Clark Gable fan clubs and anxious to imitate their idol. The theatre influences the spectators not only with respect to clothing but also in the spiritual values that can be inculcated in them through example.
• We must emphasise: What Brecht does not want is that the spectators continue to leave their brains with their hats upon entering the theatre, as do bourgeois spectators.
• Brecht wants the theatrical spectacle to be the beginning of action: the equilibrium should be sought by transforming society, and not by purging the individual of his just demands and needs. Therefore we must repeat: catharsis takes away from the character (and thus from the spectator, who is empathically manipulated by the character) his ability to act.
• In this case, perhaps the theatre is not revolutionary in itself, but it is surely a rehearsal for the revolution. The liberated spectator, as a whole person, launches into action. No matter that the action is fictional; what matters is that it is action! I believe that all the truly revolutionary theatrical groups should transfer to the people the means of production in the theatre so that the people themselves may utilise them. The theatre is a weapon, and it is the people who should wield it.
• Instead of taking something away from the spectator, evoke in him a desire to practise in reality the act he has rehearsed in the theatre. The practice of these theatrical forms creates a sort of uneasy sense of incompleteness that seeks fulfilment through real action. ...more

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May 17, 2013 Sara rated it it was amazing

Recognizing that humans have a unique ability to take action in the world while simultaneously observing themselves in action, Boal believed that the human was a self-contained theatre, actor and spectator in one. Because we can observe ourselves in action, we can amend, adjust and alter our actions to have different impact and to change our world.

Theatre of the Oppressed engages people in discovery, critical reflection and dialogue and the process of liberation! Through Theatre of the Oppressed ...more

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Jun 24, 2011 Dont rated it liked it

Shelves: popular-education, radical-aesthetic

Reviewing the comments here on Good Reads, one clearly gets the impression that although first published in 1979, Boal's book on a radical dramaturgy remains very much essential reading today. I'd like to add some of my own reflections to those noted here. First, as others have stated, Boal begins with a lengthy treatise on classical theatre as a form of social organization. Here he interrogates Aristotle's poetics. Boal offers a most useful corrective to the standard reading of catharsis. Typic Reviewing the comments here on Good Reads, one clearly gets the impression that although first published in 1979, Boal's book on a radical dramaturgy remains very much essential reading today. I'd like to add some of my own reflections to those noted here. First, as others have stated, Boal begins with a lengthy treatise on classical theatre as a form of social organization. Here he interrogates Aristotle's poetics. Boal offers a most useful corrective to the standard reading of catharsis. Typically, catharsis is understood as a purging of emotion. This pithy description is exactly the one Walter Benjamin cites when describing Brecht as anti-Aristotelian. However, Boal argues (drawing on Arnold Hauser's, SOCIAL HISTORY OF ART) that the unwanted substance to be purged in classical drama is, in fact, anything that qualifies as resistance to the status quo.

Boal makes the important point that the entire theatrical apparatus of empathic identification, tragic flaw and catharsis functions as a coercive system of obedience to the state. Thus, Aristotelian art portrays reality as a static given that has neither changed nor is changeable. This, after all, is the very portrait of the world that serves the interests of the ruling classes. For the rulers, questions about how the world came to be are only interesting as long as origins are raised to the level of mysticism or that it affirms the natural rights of the rulers to rule. Even though Aristotle believed that theatre had a direct relationship to change, that which needed to be changed was the individual and not the structure of society itself. This critique has tremendous importance in establishing why conventional modes of theater are not just a style that one can choose to observe or not. Rather, Boal wants to argue that classical drama has a political effect and serves specific political interests; that of the status quo. In the case of Aristotle, the status quo was the ruling aristocracy. By the 18th Century, the status quo was the ruling mercantile classes or bourgeoisie.

But perhaps it is when Boal moves to Brecht that the reader begins to appreciate the fine points of his argument. Tradition has established that Brecht is the most important practitioner and theorist of political art produced in the 20th Century. His impact on theater, film, visual art, experimental art, etc. is without comparison. Part of Brecht's innovation was a refusal to represent the world as it is but as it is becoming. In Boal's terms, Brecht dramatizes the reality beneath appearances rather than the appearance of reality. Thus, in his most important contribution to theate, Brecht demonstrates that reality can be changed. In one of the ways he does this Brecht presents the audience with problems demands decisions, not on the part of the characters but among the audience themselves. How would they act? How would they resolve the contradiction represented on the stage? For Boal, this approach to theater challenges an art of the status quo.

However, Brecht is not without his limitations. Namely, for Boal, Brechtian theater stops short of the point where the audience acts upon their decisions. The protagonist in Brecht's plays remains the actors on the stage. The audience may or may not enter into the decision-making process demanded by the theatre. But that is not the business of the theatre itself. Boal argues otherwise. Here it is clear that Boal demands that theater become relevant to the larger social processes of liberation from colonialism and imperialism. Practicing his art at a time of tremendous turmoil due to US-sponsored military coups and the forced extraction of resources for the benefit of European and American corporations, Boal joins those who argue that the protagonist of social change will be the people themselves. This theme permeates all of progressive Latin American thought of that moment; from querillismo to popular education, Paulo Freire to Third Cinema, Latin American conceptual art to liberation theology.

Boal begins to outline his notion of a poetics of the oppressed where those who struggle for liberation are protagonists both in the world and in the theater. Thus, the drama calls upon the audience to become directly involved in writing the drama even as it happens. As Boal testifies from his own practice, this kind of theater leaves the safe confines of bourgeois patrons and moves out into the everyday life spaces where the poor their everyday lives. The theater comes to them and, in the process, invites them to respond to the characters, argue with the narrative and propose changes to the outcome. In this sense, Boal practice is an experiment in translating Paulo Freire's popular education of codifications and decodification into the theatrical space. But a more rigorous study needs to be done to explore where that translation falls short of Freire's methodology and where it actually opens the methodology in new ways. For this reason I am skeptical of those who refer to Theater of the Oppressed as a theatrical practice of Freire's ideas. The contradictions between the two forms of popular education have as much to teach us as where they are similar (beyond the similarly titled books).

It is also worth reflecting on the extent to which Boal underplays the larger context of organizing. This will appear in his later books. But while the theater of the oppressed locates protagonism in the audience, how that audience is organized and organized in relationship to what remains largely mysterious here. This leads Boal to make certain unfortunate claims that the theater of the oppressed is a rehearsal for revolution because it gives the audience the experience of taking collective action. I appreciate the sentiment here but am painfully aware that not all action is a rehearsal for revolution. Some action rehearses counter-revolution. Clearly for action to have a prepartory role in emancipatory social change, then it needs to exist within a context of analysis where the regressive elements of that action can be distinguished from its progressives elements. Here is where Freire far exceeds the kind of formalist activist described by Boal.

In Freire's popular education, action occurs within a unity of critical reflection. The analysis produced in that reflection is then tested in action. The context of this is a specific community and its struggles. This has the potential to realign the institutional framework in which cultural practices like theater of the oppressed take place; from the institutions of theater to the labor of social movements. This subtle fact is an important point to remember if one reads Boal for ideas on how to import political content or method in a theater practice that is otherwise commitment to its legibility as theater to existing bourgeois institutions of culture. The codification and decodification practice, theatrical or otherwise, are performances that only have revolutionary effect within the context of organizing for profound social change. This is the nature of the rehearsal and not merely giving audiences an experience of action. ...more

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Jul 10, 2014 Jamie rated it it was amazing

A man after my own heart. A book that explores the true power of the theatre and its ability to free people and change and challenge power systems.

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Aug 20, 2017 Kyle rated it it was amazing

Shelves: phd-studies

A lot of excitement going into this book based upon he author's reputation and he pedigree of his progenitor (Freire still being a big theorist in most academic circles, yet being so encircled, much of his Pedagogy of the Oppressed has been problematized). Boal's theatre remains its entertaining values with its own pedantic purpose. Establishing a chain of theory from Artistotle, Machiavelli, Hegel and Brecht, the people are increasingly under the thumb of the state hat puts on the show (patrons ...more

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Aug 12, 2017 Desera Favors rated it it was amazing

Yooooo my mind is blown for many reasons, although I was sick at my stomach of all the references to European perspectives subject of theatre. Reading on I learned and fully understood why those references were so important. I won't give away the details but I urge any one who is conerned with the conditions of the impoverished people in their communities and want change to read this book! We in the artistic community have power to influence great change and I was more encouraged to continue us ...more

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Jul 27, 2007 rebecca rated it liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: anyone interested in social action, or theater, or teaching.

Shelves: education

a tricky, wordy, sort of confusing read, but chock full (chalk full? chockful? what does chock mean really? anyway it's full) of intriguing theory on the oppressor and the oppressed, how to use theater as a rehersal for revolution, and why we should be concerned with oppression at all. ...more

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Jan 02, 2014 Karen Jean Martinson rated it really liked it

Shelves: research

A nice re-read of Boal in preparation for writing about my work with TNT.

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Feb 09, 2018 Elena Astilleros rated it it was amazing

This book floored me. Taking readers through the historic roots of theater, Boal highlights the uses and limitations of the stage, explaining Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hegel and Brecht.
Studied this book while a community organizer, and the theory allowed me to set an organizing context where we could push past the day to day constraints we were living in and reimagine a new theater for our lives.

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May 31, 2018 Julian Munds rated it it was ok

Shelves: philosophy, nonfiction, cultural-criticism, education, theatrical-criticism

I can't say this is a very good piece. The claim that it is as important as Artaud or Grotowski is spurious. It's a disjointed book that brings up some fascinating perspectives on how narratives are coercive but its way of correcting that is like most movements in the theatre somewhere between the Polish school and crazy yelling on the street corner. Neat perspective but an unfinished book. ...more

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Jun 27, 2020 David Hanna rated it it was amazing

A brilliant and pointed investigation of theater, its social function, and a vision of how theater can be revolutionary. In times when creators are looking for how they can help foster change, this ought to be a primary source. Boal’s vision of the purpose of theater is so incisive, it begs to be explorers. I can’t wait to own this book and dissect it for a long time to come.

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Jan 02, 2020 Ariel Barbosa rated it it was amazing

beautiful.

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Jul 09, 2020 Tara Fredenburg rated it it was amazing

Revolutionary look at theatre (literally). And that's that on that. ...more

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Aug 29, 2020 Seth Kruger rated it it was amazing

radicalised me

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Jul 31, 2008 Matt rated it really liked it

Boal's philosophical readings get a little sloppy at times here, but the central insight guiding the book is a powerful one. Picking up on Freire's idea that an authoritarian communication/education structure will counteract even a radical choice of content, Boal attempts to envision a non-authoritarian theater.

At its best, Boal's answer radically reimagines "theater" as instead a sort of "theater workshop," in which all learn the skills necessary to participate. This sort of theater may not be ...more

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Jul 24, 2009 Phil Huckelberry rated it it was amazing

In effect there are two parts to this book: a section that deals with political theory as it is intertwined with the evolution of the theatre, and then a section dealing with the work Boal and others did in developing inclusive, interactive approaches to theatre.

As someone with a degree in political science, who has not taken a theatre class, has not been in any kind of production of anything in over 22 years, etc., I have to confess that the theoretical sections were much more relevant to me th ...more

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May 17, 2013 Jesse rated it liked it

Shelves: while-in-peace-corps

I'm not one for philosophy, and while i'm not the biggest fan of things that America does, I kind of get annoyed when revolutionary writers slag off America and just drop these blanket statements on it. I think i'm still processing what I read and need to form my opinion of it. But from reading this, i guess i don't really like revolutionary writing (because i'm American?) or maybe because the writing feels/is dated to me. It's probably more that. Then once the author finally gets into what peop ...more

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Jan 03, 2017 Amanda Grace rated it it was amazing

Shelves: improv-is-dumb

Boal writes with the confidence of a man who has dedicated his life to the understanding and subversion of theatrical form, and since I've not yet taken Theatre History I, I'm left to trust in the professor who recommended Theatre of the Oppressed that Boal is, in fact, a master of theatrical theory. I had never before known or indeed imagined the concepts he covers in this volume, such as the rise and fall of the bourgeoisie and their movement from Aristotelian to Machiavellian poetics to the ...more

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Feb 02, 2013 Phillip rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: theory-philosophy-and-non-fiction

I would give this 3.5 stars, but goodreads doesn't have a half star option. What I like about Baol's book is the interesting and illuminating examination of Aristotle's Poetics as a political text. His argument about Aristotelian theatre being fundamentally coercive is an intriguing one, though I think Baol puts too much emphasis on Aristotle as a prescriptive text, rather than a descriptive one. The counter-argument to this is, of course, that the Poetics has been read throughout Western histor ...more

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Aug 15, 2011 Ruja added it · review of another edition

Shelves: could-not-finish, theatre-theory

This book finally went to its friends in the could-not-finish group. I have to say I struggled through and got almost to the end but just could not read even one more line of this. I went that far because many directors I respect refer to Boal's work here as enlightening and unique. I did not see any of this. Up until his explanation on the difference between his theory and Brecht's epic theatre I could swear it is the same thing dressed in the red flag of his revolution. I actually still think ...more

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Jul 14, 2008 Misamay rated it really liked it

what more can an idealist educator ask for than a clear blue-print for synthesizing Freirian theory with action, practically applying Freire's philosophy in Pedagogy of the Oppressed, to facilitate innovative exercises that raise both a student and educator's consciousness about their state of oppression while actively working to topple it through action. ...more

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Jul 07, 2009 Ethan rated it it was amazing

Highest possible recommendation to those who live/teach theatre. Get it and learn it and use it. Awesome interactive theatre that can be used as a problem solving tool, a method of conflict resolution, and much more. It's a game-changer. ...more

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Sep 26, 2009 Katie rated it liked it

The theory behind Theatre of the Oppressed - fascinating look at the artform of theatre and it's effect upon us. It can get a little thick at times when talking about different theorists or major playwrights. ...more

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Jun 14, 2011 Alex rated it it was amazing

Shelves: reference

It's the only book of its kind in existence if West Coast U.S.A. library catalogs are indication. I will eventually get around to purchasing this book but it's more theory than practice so other books are more essential to my work. ...more

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Nov 06, 2011 David Gross added it

Shelves: non-fiction

I lost interest half-way through. It started promisingly with a discussion of how Aristotle's theory of the theater related to his ethics & politics, but by the time he got to Hegel my eyes glazed over. ...more

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Aug 06, 2007 Adamkassim rated it really liked it

not a book to read just for fun!

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Jul 06, 2008 galaxy rated it it was amazing

back in grad school, this book (and his others), really awakened my political consciousness. Boal became my teacher and guru for over 10 years.

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Jun 14, 2012 Dan added it

what a man, what a life - what a book?

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Dec 08, 2013 Sidiney Rodrigues rated it it was amazing

Are you oppressed? By the others? By you? By your Friends? What kind oppressed are you live?

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Nov 16, 2014 Mysticismlover rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A very enlightening book indeed. However I did find it way more perplexed than it should have been.
I'm not sure whether that was due to the translation, but it was unecessary. ...more

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About Augusto Boal

Augusto Boal

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Augusto Boal was a Brazilian theatre director, writer and politician. He was the founder of Theatre of the Oppressed, a theatrical form originally used in radical popular education movements.

His books are very influential. With 22 published works, translated to more than 20 languages, his views are studied in Theatre schools all over the world.

Books by Augusto Boal

The Rainbow of Desire: The Boal Method of Theatre and Therapy

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Hamlet and the Baker's Son: My Life in Theatre and Politics

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“Theatre is the most perfect artistic form of coercion.” — 9 likes

“Motion, according to him, is an illusion, because we can demonstrate that it does not actually exist; the same for the multiplicity of existing things, which are in his logic, a single being, infinite, eternal, unchangeable. Like Heraclitus, Parmenides too, had his radical disciple, named Zeno. The latter had the habit of telling two stories to prove the inexistence of motion.” — 1 likes

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