Theatre of the Oppressed (Get Political)
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Theatre of the Oppressed Boal 00 pre i 3/7/08 12:21:36 <:IEA>I>86A www.plutobooks.com Revolution, Black Skin, Democracy, White Masks Socialism Frantz Fanon Selected Writings Forewords by V.I. Lenin Homi K. Edited by Bhabha and Paul Le Blanc Ziauddin Sardar 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 9780745328386 Race, Culture and Globalisation A. Sivanandan Foreword by Colin Prescod 9780745328348 Boal 00 pre ii 3/7/08 12:21:36 theatre off thehe oppressed AUGUSTO BOAL Translated from Spanish by Charles A. and Maria-Odilia Leal McBride and Emily Fryer PLUTO PRESS www.plutobooks.com Boal 00 pre iii 3/7/08 12:21:37 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 Boal 00 pre iv 3/7/08 12:21:37 For Fábian, Julián and Cecilia Boal 00 pre v 3/7/08 12:21:37 Boal 00 pre vi 3/7/08 12:21:37 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 Boal 00 pre vii 3/7/08 12:21:37 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 Boal 00 pre viii 3/7/08 12:21:37 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 Boal 00 pre ix 3/7/08 12:21:37 PREFACE TO THE 2000 EDITION The Unruly Protagonist There are few surviving documents on the origins of Greek theatre. With little documentary evidence and only fragmentary accounts, we can only guess at its beginning: we are condemned to use our imagination. In Ancient Greece – as everywhere – after their arduous teamwork was over, workers liked to celebrate the suspension of Order. For teamwork to be possible, discipline is indispensable. When building a house, the painters cannot paint the walls before they have been erected; the roof can only be put in place after the foundations have been laid, never the other way round. Rules are necessary for building work. But not once the job is done. At the ‘topping-off’ party, when the house is fi nished, the builders have a beer, dance and sing, and open up a bit; they relax, and soon the barriers between them break down. Censorship sleeps and the mouth speaks. Mission accomplished, so the rules can be broken. During harvest-time, farm workers would labour under strict discipline, from dawn to dusk, for weeks and months on end. First the grape harvest, then the winemaking. When it was over, of course they would get drunk, sing, and dance in homage to Dionysus, god of happiness, god of binges. Alcohol was essential, not accidental: it was the touch-paper of freedom. The celebrations of Greek farm labourers after harvest were just as spontaneous as those of builders today when they fi nish a house. The songs and dances came from the soul. It was creative anarchy – which could also play havoc. Freedom needed to be kept within bounds. There had to be limits. But can freedom in handcuffs be truly free? The aristocracy thought it could. As work had previously been x Boal 00 pre x 3/7/08 12:21:37 PREFACE TO THE 2000 EDITION xi disciplined, now freedom must be supervised, as if a threat. In extreme cases it could destroy what had been built. A necessary contradiction. When it was free, the body could invent the dance, which came from inside; free, the body could dance in space and time. The choreographer turned up and charted the movement, explained the gesture, defi ned the rhythm, and limited the space. The dramatic poet came and wrote his verses. No more freed thought or creative chaos. Premeditated Order had arrived. Dramatic poetry and choreography were great advances, but freedom was over and done with. Something more solemn was introduced into the bacchanalian outbursts – the Dithyramb. This chorus was the imprisoned shout, clamour with rhyme and rhythm, an authorised implosion, civilised savagery, joy, measured out by the clock. What had hitherto not been a play became one. Now everyone danced the same dance and sang the same religious song. Ø Thespis was a multi-faceted fi gure: poet, choreographer, actor, and drunkard. He wrote poems and, blending into the Chorus, sang himself. He sketched out movements and performed them in the dithyrambic procession, in harmony with the Chorus. A true artist, he was true to himself. One day, Solon the lawmaker came to see his play. Solon the Great, who had just revoked the Code of Drakon, whose memory still frightens us with a pre-Biblical ‘tooth-for-tooth’ and ‘eye-for- eye’.