Role Playing, Mardi Gras, and Theatre of the Oppressed

There are varying years given for when Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) was founded, but the one thing that is consistent in every source is that it was founded by Augusto Boal. Boal said that the goal of TO was deal with local problems (Theatre). Some say that Boal came up with the idea of TO when he was working on a literacy campaign where he wanted learners to become active participants in their own education. It is said that while he was doing this, Boal argued that theatre was not only a weapon, but a very effective weapon (Taylor 10). Boal’s name and general idea of the oppressed not having a voice come from the 1968 education manifesto “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” written by the philosopher Paul Freire (Weber 8). Friere said that Western education was a monologue. Similar to Freire’s idea of Western education, Boal saw scripted plays as monologues (Fischbach 01).

Boal was intrigued by the relationship between the actor and the spectator, but at the same time he believed “everyone can make theatre” (Weber 8). He wanted to create dialogue, not have passive listening and he wanted the audience’s voice as part of what was created on stage making sure that the collaboration between the actors and the audience gave everybody a way to share idea and issues with an equal voice (Fischbach 01). In order to do this, Boal argued that we needed a new poetics to stimulate and transform society and engage it in revolutionary action rather than using “the gift from the Greek” (Kilker 278)

While the reasons Boal created TO are known, the exact creation story is not known. However, there are a few legends. One states that a peasant farmer, Virgilio, who was a would-be revolutionary wanted Boal’s theatre company to join him in a military firefight against the fascist Brazilian army. Another one is that when a group was performing Image Theatre, a sculpture made from bodies (Philadelphia) in Peru, they needed to find a way to communicate because only a few of the people in the company spoke the same language (Paterson, Doug 111).

While some people understand exactly what oppression is, others do not, so in order to understand TO, it is important to understand oppression. A few forms of oppression are having no power, not being able to voice your opinion because of either not believing in yourself or having fear of what those in charge may do, and doing only what others want you to do (Boje). Then, there are different parts of TO. Image Theatre is where human bodies are used to make sculpture in order to show a story that anybody can understand. Rainbow of Desire is a specific therapeutic technique that is geared towards dismantling internalized oppression (Philadelphia) Then, there is Forum Theatre which has the function to transfer the spectator to the spect-actor (both a spectator and an actor at the same time) (What).

It is storied that Boal’s discovery of Forum Theatre happened when two actors were on stage portraying a husband and a wife. The wife was severely dominated by the husband. When the woman in the audience was upset that the characters on stage were not following any of her oral suggestions, she got up out of her seat and walked onto the stage where she beat the husband with a broom until he stopped abusing his wife (Paterson, Douglas 37). From this, Boal was able to continue using Forum Theatre where he would encourage spectators to enter the action. This way usually the audience would identify with the intervener (Paterson, Douglas 38). If spectators were not comfortable simply entering into a performance, a Joker, the name for a TO facilitator (Philadelphia) may yell “Stop!” and invite people to enter the action. The Joker may also ask the group if a situation could happen and to share ideas (Paterson, Doug 114).

However, once people are comfortable with TO and Forum Theatre, it is likely that people will readily engage in the form without the need for a Joker. At one of the Image Theatre Festivals in Rio, several street children were killed by murderers outside a nearby church. Soon after this, a roll call of the 25 nations present at the festival was performed. Just as that performance ended, some people who were costumed in black and on stilts portraying birds of prey entered the area and pursued others who seemed to be children. As the children were pursued, the birds of pray swooped down on them. The crowd gathered to watch and before many people could figure out exactly what was happening, the two birds were captured and tied to the light posts. The children had done this. In reality, all of the people were actors from the company Teatreros Ambulantes (Paterson, Douglas 46).

TO uses theatre to discuss problems. These can include workers, Blakcs, street children, the unemployed, the homeless, and more (Heritage 26). While it seems that if politicians were ever theatrical artists, they tend to try to separate themselves from their past profession ,but Boal argues that these should not be separated, but have “emphasized the continuity and interactions of the two functions” (Heritage 25). TO moves theatre outside of traditional spaces and the system can be learned and taught by others making it replicable (Taylor 11).

We don’t realize it, but TO is all around us. In the summer of 2009, the ELCA held a National Youth Gathering in New Orleans, LA. Part of the learning experience at that time was about TO. This was because the participants were learning how some of the residences coped with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Some of the people would dress up as the hurricane and march in the Mardi Gras parade. This allowed them to poke fun at something that oppressed the people, but that they couldn’t control. It is not quite the same as much of TO, but they do use the ideas in it. However, this was only the introduction. During the warm up exercises, the youth there were not sure what to think of having theatre, so an easy exercise (The Picnic Game) was used rather than a traditional TO game. While youth always have some type of oppression, they did not easily volunteer ideas, so a game was played where the group that didn’t know the rule of the game felt oppressed. This got them to begin to open up to each other. They started trying to figure out the rule and how could it be done in different ways. Could they ask the rule of others? Could the ask at the beginning? Sometimes nobody asked and they all sat confused, even when somebody seemed to have found a solution.

Other times TO is used but we don’t often realize it is when people say that they are doing “role playing,” but in reality, it is TO because the role playing often starts with two people and they are given a scenario. They will start to act out what they know and others are invited to join the scene when they have some type of input. Sometimes the scene is run again with the same people who started or it may be different people who start. Different scenarios and solutions are built from these sessions. It has been done with things such as traditional hymns versus contemporary Christian music, the story of Mary and Martha turned simply into chores versus listening to an important teacher, and the student-teacher relationship.

Boal states that through TO “although we are talking about somebody else, in reality we are always talking about ourselves” (Boal 68). From all of these examples it can be seen that TO stories do “teach roughly, situate quickly, and celebrate bravely in the face of catastrophe” (Paterson, Doug 117). TO continues to prove that “theatre is a place of action beyond theory” (Heritage 31).

Works Cited

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