The Theatre of the Oppressed began to take shape in Brazil, afflicted by
the dictatorial regime of the Gorillas, and was systematized inArgentina during the exile of Augusto Boal, around 1974. The method
found a vast diffusion on an international scale after its founder was
forced to abandon Argentina. The cause was the establishment of yet
another dictatorial regime. Boal, together with his wife and son, moved
to Paris, Europe. From that moment, the TO began to spread on an
international scale and to date there are about eighty countries that
have encountered this methodology.
The original context, violent and all-encompassing, has inevitably
impacted the systematization of this method. The first works staged by
the Teatro Arena in São Paulo, of which Boal was artistic director even
before the method was systematized, have often been compared to
agitprop, a term that takes us directly back to the October Revolution.
In this context, the general objective of the agitation project was to
train the people who were to become an active component in the
construction of Soviet power. Spectators were called upon to examine
some cases, analyze actions that concerned the general interest and then
act, making conscious choices.
The Teatro Arena, at the time of the dictatorship, was a great point of
reference for all those who opposed the regime. In the performances they
proposed, a strong criticism of the atrocities of the military regime
often developed. The theater, therefore, became a political instrument
and a very powerful means to express one's dissent and opposition to the
cruel regime. In fact, Augusto Boal and other members of the Teatro
Arena team were soon hit by the repression. Boal was kidnapped and
tortured, then released and forced to leave his country.
The TO can be considered a practice close to the Freirian pedagogical
approach because it leaves space for the oppressed, with the aim of
starting paths of awareness and consequent opportunities for concrete
action. In this way we move from the scenic space to that of real life,
trying to criticize and deconstruct actions and situations implemented
and experienced in life contexts.
The reharsal for revolution to use the words of Augusto Boal. A dress
rehearsal to open revolutionary paths.
Another relevant aspect of the TO consists in the attempt at change
through awareness of the oppression that each individual experiences. It
can be an exogenous oppression by one subject on another that can occur
in the most disparate situations: work, family or relational. It could
also be an endogenous oppression. Le flic dans la tête is another focal
point of Boal's work.
If in Brazil in the 1960s oppression was evident and was carried out by
the regime, when Boal reached Europe, he realized that individuals were
oppressed even though they lived in democratic contexts. They acted,
again for Boal, as if they had a policeman in their heads.
The process of de-mechanization, another founding theory of the TO
arsenal, also aims to realize an observation of self-imposed
injunctions. Why can't I do this? Who is stopping me? Who is my internal
oppressor?
To understand how de-mechanizations materialize during theater
workshops, I will try to provide a concrete example. What the TO arsenal
actually allows to realize is a process of breaking the usual
mechanisms. In Boal's thought, our bodies absorb all those that we could
define as social rituals. In fact, they are not only and exclusively
part of our language but are inevitably reflected in our bodies,
gestures, movements and in our emotions and sensations. Through specific
exercises we try to interrupt that habit, a fundamental part of our
sensitive memory. Interrupt it, to propose something unexpected, unusual.
A de-mechanization exercise can be considered the following: the group
of people present is invited to walk with a habitual pace in the theater
space and they are asked to follow the instructions that the facilitator
will give. The facilitator will ask
people to stop when they hear "stop" and walk when they hear "walk".
After a while, other instructions will be inserted: "up" and everyone
will have to stand up, "down" and they will have to squat. After a few
minutes, the group is asked to invert the commands. Usually this word
causes laughter, dismay, wide-eyedness. At "stop" you keep walking, at
"walk" you stand still. At "up" you go down and at "down" you stay standing.
The facilitator asks this group of people to do something they would
probably never do during their day. Why break the routine if we have to
rush to work? Why stay standing if we have to sit on the chair to work
from our computer? And above all, why transgress?
A simple and fun game-exercise that apparently doesn't have much to tell
us, actually wants to stimulate a collective reflection. It is
interesting to focus on the effects that this game causes on the bodies,
to think about one's own reactions and how much it can cost us,
sometimes, to break the habit, leaving our comfort zone.
This is what the Theatre of the Oppressed would like to do in its small
way: to provide tools to remind us of the concrete existence of
alternative possibilities to those that we commonly experience on a
daily basis and which we struggle to question ourselves about or, often,
forget to do so.
Among the various techniques that make up the arsenal of the Oppressed
(Image Theatre, Legislative Theatre, Newspaper Theatre, Rainbow of
Desires, Games-exercises) a distinctive feature lies in the Forum
Theatre. It is a moment of collective discussion, in which the
possibility of weaving reasoning with people who have never met before
opens up, with the aim of imagining and bringing to the stage
alternative solutions to an oppressive situation.
The Theatre of the Oppressed is not a conventional theatre and actor
specialization is not necessary in it. The break with classical
theatrical tradition was in fact a break strongly felt by Augusto Boal.
Not only did he believe it was necessary to start a process of giving
theatrical means back to the people, but he further strengthened this
objective, making it possible to break down the fourth wall.
The most surprising thing during TO shows is the final part of a staged
act. Usually, a TO performance ends abruptly at the moment of the
Chinese crisis, that is, the oppressive peak of the story told. In this
moment, the protagonist lives in a highly oppressive condition but, at
the same time, still has some choices available.
With the scene frozen, the lights come on and the giolli - that is, the
person who facilitates the Teatro Forum shows - questions the audience.
What did you see? What happened? Who is the oppressed person in this
scene? Who is the person who oppresses and overrides the will of
everyone? And you? What would you do if you were the oppressed, what
could you propose, what ideas do you have?
And so from a simple spectator or spectator the audience is made up of
spect-actresses and spect-actors. It is called not only to observe
carefully, but also to enter the scene, to make what it sees its own. It
is asked to speak, empathize and reason by breaking, with its own step
on stage, that distance that exists between the actor and the observer.
That imaginary wall that stiffens the roles in a theater: the fourth wall.
Today, critical reflections on TO are progressing and the current debate
among those who practice this methodology is aimed at strengthening this
tool as much as possible within the current socio-political scenario. I
am referring to the predominance of neoliberalism that has inevitably
led our social relationships and interactions to a decline. To use
Arendt's words, a form of atomization, of unbridled individualism and
declined in the most competitive and selfish form imaginable. If in our
lives the tendency is to prevail over the other and over-determine him,
in the same way the risk on stage, as Julian Boal's words also confirm,
is precisely that of triggering a race to hyper-performativity.
A race to the death between the spectator-actor or the spectator-actress
who struggles to propose the most fun, bloody or magical idea there is.
Precisely for this reason, the current reflection focuses on the
possibility of creating, during the Teatro Forum, moments during which
spectators can weave a collective reflection. Re-establishing, as much
as possible and even on a brief occasion such as that of an evening of
theatrical performance, the concrete possibility of being able to
confront the other and reflect together, bringing one's own experiential
baggage and ideas. Furthermore, numerous declinations of the Theatre of
the Oppressed are currently widespread. Among these, some are profoundly
detached from the original transformative intentions. The attempt of
some of the people who practice the method today is to keep the memory
of its origins firm with a view that is not orthodox but oriented to
assume a critical attitude in order to continue practicing TO within the
current socio-political context.
These are no longer revolutionary times, writes Julian Boal in his
latest contribution. It is difficult not to agree especially if we take
into consideration the impact of neoliberalism on our existences.
How can we then practice TO without forgetting its political value? Is
its original dramaturgical form consistent with what we all experience
today? The impact that technology has on our existences, for example,
makes it essential to turn our gaze to new expressions of oppression
that are no longer embodied exclusively in concrete subjects but
permeate our daily lives in different forms. The pervasiveness of the
capitalist system, as well highlighted in Fisher's Capitalist Realism
and also expressed in Bifo's concept of semiocapitalism, manages to
subsume and involve even practices and methods that would like to oppose
it. He therefore admits the contradiction.
These are questions connected to open problems, on which it is necessary
to concentrate and reflect, becoming aware that these are complex
questions that arise in an equally complex world. For now, I would like
to underline that TO is undeniably a political theatrical methodology
because it starts from the bottom, looking at oppressed people and
leaving them space for speech and action. An action that develops on
stage in order to, hopefully, reach real life.
TO represents a tear, a trip to the frenzy that characterizes our lives.
A reappropriation of space and time, bodies and collective construction,
albeit limited. Reconquering one's artistic and creative capacity
without feeling obstacles in being able to do so because certain of
being in a non-judgmental space. TO aims to create moments of encounter,
it wants to disrupt and allow everyone to make a great effort of
recognition not only towards themselves, but above all towards others.
Most of the games-exercises are replicated in absolute silence, others
are done with your eyes closed.
Because the arsenal of the method pushes you to listen to everything you
hear, to observe everything you see and to feel everything you touch.
*Professional educator, PhD student in Pedagogical Sciences, she deals
with Theater of the Oppressed with the KRILA Collective of Bologna.
http://alternativalibertaria.fdca.it/
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