Theatre of the Oppressed BBooaall 0000 pprree ii 33//77//0088 1122::2211::3366 (cid:60)(cid:58)(cid:73)(cid:21)(cid:69)(cid:21)(cid:21)(cid:21)(cid:65)(cid:62)(cid:73)(cid:62)(cid:56)(cid:54)(cid:65) www.plutobooks.com Revolution, Black Skin, Democracy, White Masks Socialism Frantz Fanon Selected Writings Forewords by V.I. Lenin Homi K. Bhabha and Edited by Ziauddin Sardar Paul Le Blanc 9780745328485 9780745327600 Jewish History, The Jewish Religion Communist The Weight Manifesto of Three Karl Marx and Thousand Years Friedrich Engels Israel Shahak Introduction by Forewords by David Harvey Pappe / Mezvinsky/ 9780745328461 Said / Vidal 9780745328409 Theatre of Catching the Oppressed History on Augusto Boal the Wing Race, Culture and 9780745328386 Globalisation A. Sivanandan Foreword by Colin Prescod 9780745328348 BBooaall 0000 pprree iiii 33//77//0088 1122::2211::3366 theatre ooofffffff thhheee oppressed AUGUSTO BOAL Translated from Spanish by Charles A. and Maria-Odilia Leal McBride and Emily Fryer PLUTO PRESS www.plutobooks.com BBooaall 0000 pprree iiiiii 33//77//0088 1122::2211::3377 First published 1979 and 2000 by Pluto Press 345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA New edition published 2008 Originally published in 1974 as Teatro del Oprimido www.plutobooks.com Copyright © Augusto Boal 1979, 2000, 2008 2000 Preface English translation © Emily Fryer The right of Augusto Boal to be identifi ed as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 0 7453 2839 3 Hardback ISBN 978 0 7453 2838 6 Paperback This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental standards of the country of origin. The paper may contain up to 70% post consumer waste. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Designed and produced for Pluto Press by Chase Publishing Services Ltd, Fortescue, Sidmouth, EX10 9QG, England Typeset from disk by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton Printed and bound in the European Union by CPI Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham and Eastbourne BBooaall 0000 pprree iivv 33//77//0088 1122::2211::3377 For Fábian, Julián and Cecilia BBooaall 0000 pprree vv 33//77//0088 1122::2211::3377 BBooaall 0000 pprree vvii 33//77//0088 1122::2211::3377 CONTENTS Preface to the 2008 edition ix Preface to the 2000 edition – The Unruly Protagonist x Preface to the 1974 edition xxiii 1. Aristotle’s Coercive System of Tragedy 1 Introduction 1 Art Imitates Nature 3 What is the Meaning of ‘Imitation’? 9 What, then, is the Purpose of Art and Science? 10 Major Arts and Minor Arts 11 What does Tragedy Imitate? 12 What is Happiness? 13 And What is Virtue? 14 Necessary Characteristics of Virtue 15 The Degrees of Virtue 18 What is Justice? 19 In What Sense can Theatre Function as an Instrument for Purifi cation and Intimidation? 21 The Ultimate Aim of Tragedy 22 A Short Glossary of Simple Words 29 How Aristotle’s Coercive System of Tragedy Functions 31 Different Types of Confl ict: Hamartia and Social Ethos 34 Conclusion 40 2. Machiavelli and the Poetics of Virtù 43 The Feudal Abstraction 43 The Bourgeois Concretion 49 Machiavelli and Mandragola 56 Modern Reductions of Virtù 62 BBooaall 0000 pprree vviiii 33//77//0088 1122::2211::3377 viii THEATRE OF THE OPPRESSED 3. Hegel and Brecht: The Character as Subject or the Character as Object? 70 The ‘Epic’ Concept 70 Types of Poetry in Hegel 72 Characteristics of Dramatic Poetry, Still According to Hegel 74 Freedom of the Character-Subject 74 A Word Poorly Chosen 77 Does Thought Determine Being (or Vice Versa)? 79 Can Man be Changed? 82 Confl ict of Wills or Contradiction of Needs? 83 Empathy or What? Emotion or Reason? 84 Catharsis and Repose, or Knowledge and Action? 86 How to Interpret the New Works? 88 The Rest Does Not Count: They Are Minor Formal Differences Between the Three Genres 90 Empathy or Osmosis 93 4. Poetics of the Oppressed 95 Experiments with the People’s Theatre in Peru 95 Conclusion: ‘Spectator’, a Bad Word! 134 5. Development of the Arena Theatre of São Paulo 136 Need for the ‘Joker’ 144 Goals of the ‘Joker’ 150 Structures of the ‘Joker’ 157 Appendices 169 Notes 173 Index 178 BBooaall 0000 pprree vviiiiii 33//77//0088 1122::2211::3377 PREFACE TO THE 2008 EDITION This book was published for the fi rst time in Buenos Aires in 1973, at the beginning of 16 years of exile from my own country, Brazil, which was at that time under a cruel and murderous civic and military dictatorship. It has been reprinted dozens of times in dozens of languages since then. What has changed? In itself, nothing has changed. It is the philosophical foundation of the whole system of Theatre of the Oppressed, so it cannot change because I have not changed my opinions about theatre, about history, or about the voracious political systems that prevail in most parts of this world. I only have, I hope, coherently enriched that vision and also my practice. I have developed other forms of Theatre of the Oppressed which are not described here, like the Rainbow of Desire, Legislative Theatre and the Aesthetics of the Oppressed. However, when I read this book today, I do so from a much broader perspective than I did when I wrote it. At that time, I was concerned with theatre as theatre, and about its relationship to social human beings. Now, I am more concerned with human beings as theatre. I was a teacher of theatre. Now, I understand that there is no such thing. Those, like myself, who are teachers – and students – of theatre, in reality we are students and teachers of human beings. This book can be read again from that perspective. When we study Shakespeare we must be conscious that we are not studying the history of the theatre, but learning about the history of humanity. We are discovering ourselves. Above all: we are discovering that we can change ourselves, and change the world. Nothing is going to remain the way it is. Let us, in the present, study the past, so as to invent the future. Augusto Boal, March 2008 ix BBooaall 0000 pprree iixx 33//77//0088 1122::2211::3377