1. Jokers must avoid all actions which could manipulate or influence the audience. They must not draw conclusions which are not self-evident. They must always open the possible conclusions to dialogue, stating them in an interrogative rather than an affirmative form, instead of being confronted with the Joker’s own personal interpretation of events.
2. Jokers personally decide nothing. They spell out the rules of the game, but in complete acceptance from the outset that the audience may alter them, if it is deemed necessary for the study of the proposed subject.
3. The Joker must constantly be relaying doubts back to the audience so that it is they who make the decisions. Does this particular solution work or not? How has the oppression changed? Is this realistic within your context? And this principle applies most of all in relation to the spect-actors’ interventions. Often a spect-actor will say ‘Stop!’ before the preceding spect-actor has finished his/her own intervention. The Joker must then tactfully persuade the newly intervening spect-actor to exercise patience, while also trying to sense what the audience wants; they may well have already understood the intervention and want to move on. Once again, the decision rests with the audience.
4. Jokers must watch out for all ‘magic’ solutions. They can interrupt the spect-actor/protagonist’s action if they consider this action to be magic, not ruling that it is magic, but rather asking the audience to decide. *We should take note of the fact that when the audience shouts that such-and-such a solution is not magic, that the solutions is possible, that shout is the beginning of a process of self-motivation on the spect-actor’s part, it is the stimulus for real action. Sometimes the solutions proposed are at the opposite end of the spectrum to ‘magic’, they are inadequate. In these cases, the Joker must try to push the spect-actors into finding more active solutions. The magic solution is cheating, but the inadequate solution is demobilizing.
5. The physical stance of the Joker is extremely important. Some Jokers are tempted to mix with the audience, to sit with other spect-actors; this can be completely demobilizing. Others, by their demeanor, allow their own doubts, their own indecision or timidity, to show through. Now everything that happens on stage, by which I mean all the images produced by the body or by objects, is significant. If the Joker on stage is tired or confused, he or she will transmit a tired and disoriented image to the audience. But beware – being dynamic does not mean seeking to influence the outcome!
6. Finally, the Joker must be Socratic – dialectically, and, by means of questions, by means of doubts, she or he must help the spectators to gather their thoughts, to prepare their actions. The Joker is a midwife. The Joker must assist the birth of all ideas, of all actions. Going further than Socrates, who framed questions that expected answers, and, in so doing, limited the field of questions: who do you want to talk about? We try to avoid any form of manipulation of the participants.