Theatre of the Oppressed

How can art continue to serve as an act of political rebellion? How can Boal’s work be used to subvert other artistic forms and to challenge contemporary expressions of power?

The 1960s and 1970s were a time of great social change across the globe. How does Boal’s form of artistic protest compare to responses in other countries facing significant political and social upheaval at the same time? For example, how might French philosopher Michel Foucault’s work in Discipline and Punish connect to Boal’s Theater of the Oppressed? Alternatively, how might Boal’s response to governmental oppression align with the American Civil Rights Movement?

Augusto Boal was highly influenced by the educational philosopher Paulo Freire, who famously wrote Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Compare the approaches of these two men and their contributions to the development in their fields. How do education and art both serve as forms of liberation?

Boal wrote Theatre of the Oppressed during a moment of political unrest in Brazil. Are his ideas a reaction to an oppressive military regime, to the Western impact on art, or to both? In Boal’s work, what do these two expressions of power have in common?

What do Boal’s philosophies and the musical movement of Tropicália have in common? How can Theatre of the Oppressed be used as a critical lens through which other art and expressions of resistance can be studied?

Historians speculate that Shakespeare was likely influenced by Machiavelli’s highly popular philosophies. Compare Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet to Machiavelli’s The Mandrake. How does each play function as an expression of power?

Boal’s Joker system shifts perspective from telling (when the character translates scenes to the audience) to participation (when the Joker mediates between actors and viewers in collaboration). How does this fundamental shift work to challenge existing power structures?

In Chapter 5, Boal explains that censors were far more critical of the Arena Theater’s comedies than of their tragedies. Is this still true today? Why might comedies be viewed with more suspicion than tragedies?