Chapter I. Introduction to Theatre of the Oppressed
Theatre of the Oppressed is theatre in this most archaic application of the word. In this usage, all human beings are actors (they act) and spectators (they observe). They are spect-actors. The theatrical language is the most essential human language. Everything that actors do on stage, we do throughout our lives, always and everywhere. Actors talk, move, dress to suit the setting, express ideas, reveal passions - just as we do in our daily lives. The only difference is that actors are conscious that they are using the language of theatre, and are thus better able to turn it to their advantage.
In Theatre of the Oppressed (TO), reality is shown not only as it is, but also, more importantly, as it could be. Which is what we live for - to become what we have the potential to be. This vital element is entrusted to the creativity of the audience: the spectators come on stage, substituting themselves for the protagonist (i.e. the oppressed actor in the scene fighting the oppression), and trying to find viable solutions for real problems.
A fundamental element in Theatre of the Oppressed: it is never didactic to its audience. It involves a process of learning together rather than one-way teaching. (Paulo Freire, who worked with TO founder Augusto Boal, similarly promoted a problem-solving approach to teaching, as opposed to a 'bank-deposit' model.) It assumes that there is as much likelihood of the audience knowing the answers as the performers - i.e. audience members are resources, not recipients.
Theatre of the Oppressed is about acting rather than talking, questioning rather than giving answers, analyzing rather than accepting. This is a technique for all those who are interested in theatre as a force for change.
Three main categories exist within the Theatre of the Oppressed technique: Image Theatre, Invisible Theatre, and Forum Theatre. However, there is a continuous overlap and interplay between all these forms and the choice of the particular form simply depends on the situation in which the work is being made and the goal of the theatrical event.
IMAGE THEATRE
Image theatre is a series of exercises and games designed to uncover essential truths about societies and cultures without resort to spoke language - though this may be added in the various 'dynamisations' of the images. The participants in Image Theatre make still images of their lives, feelings, experiences, oppressions; groups suggest titles or themes, and then individuals sculpt three-dimensional images under these titles, using their own and others bodies as clay. However, the image work never remains static. As with all of Theatre of the Oppressed, the frozen image is simply the starting point for or prelude to the action which is revealed in the dynamisation process (i.e. the bringing to life of the images and the discovery of whatever direction or intention is innate to them).
INVISIBLE THEATRE
Invisible theatre is public theatre which involves the public as participants in the action without their knowing it. They are the 'spect-actors', the active spectators, of a piece of theatre, but while it is happening, and usually even after the event, they do not know that this is theatre rather than 'real life'. Of course, it is also 'real life', because it is actually happening, the people are real, the incidents are real, the reactions are real. This is theatre that does not take place in a theatre building or other obvious theatrical context, with an audience which does not know it is an audience. Several actors rehearse a scene which they then play in an appropriate public space. The scene usually involves an unexpected subversion of 'normal' behavior within that particular society. In reaction to the incidents in the scene, the public becomes involved in an argument, usually aided by a couple of agents-provocateurs (actors) mingling with the public and expressing extreme and opposite reactions to the events of the scene.
Invisible theatre is a way of using theatre to stimulate dialogue, getting people to question issues in a public forum. It might be compared to 'agitprop' street theatre, with the essential difference that the audience is free to take up any position it wants, and has no feeling of being preached at. It asks questions without dictating the answers.
FORUM THEATRE
Forum theatre is a theatrical game in which a problem is shown in an unsolved form, to which the audience, again spect-actors, is invited to suggest and enact solutions. The problem is always the symptom of oppression, and generally involves visible oppressors and a protagonist who is oppressed. In its purest form, both actors and spect-actors will be people who are victims of the oppression under consideration; that is why they are able to offer alternative solutions, because they themselves are personally acquainted with the oppression. After one showing of the scene, which is known as 'the model' (it can be a full-length play), it is show again slightly speeded up, and follows exactly the same course until a member of the audience shouts 'Stop!', takes the place of the protagonist and tries to undue the oppression. (Variations on this intervention model exist - i.e. theatre practitioners hesitant to use the 'Stop!' method can also ask the audience for interventions immediately after the first run through is finished, rather than re-playing the entire scene and waiting for a 'Stop!')
The game is a form of contest between spect-actors trying to bring the play to a different end (in which the cycle of oppression is broken) and actors ostensibly making every possible effort to bring it to its original end (in which the oppression is unchallenged). The proceedings are presided over by a figure called the 'Joker', whose function is to ensure the smooth running of the game and teach the audience the rules. However, like all the participants in Forum Theatre, the Joker can be replaced if the spect-actors do not think he or she is doing a fair job, and virtually any of the 'rules' can be change if the audience wants. Many different solutions are enacted in the course of a single forum - the result is a pooling of knowledge, tactics and experience, and at the same time what Boal calls 'rehearsal for reality'.
Forum theatre's aim is always to stimulate dialogue (in the form of action, not just words), to show alternatives, to enable people 'to become the protagonists of their own lives'.
Editor's Note: Variations of Forum Theatre exist where the spect-actor can replace ANYONE on stage, not only the protagonist, but the antagonist as well. Additionally, spect-actors will occasionally invent new scenes with new characters. Why it is beneficial to allow this flexibility is that if, for example in the case of Pakistan, a feudal landlord (spect-actor) replaces the oppressive feudal landlord 'actor' on stage and undoes the oppression as the 'actor' feudal landlord, the spect-actor in essence promises to the community that he will no longer engage in that type of oppression when he returns to real life.