Theatre of the oppressed
Described by Júlia Tena Mensa, based on (Boal, 1979)Description
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Context: who/when/where |
The theatre of the oppressed - Centar za kazalište potlačenih POKAZ is used as a theatre methodology and practice to represent the real-life situations of a specific group of people. The actors decide what and how to represent during the play. In the play, there are several roles. One of them is the “facilitator”, who does not really engage in any character, but their role is to engage with the audience. As far as I know, there are no restrictions for the audience. During the play, the actors would carry out a first representation of the play, alone, as programmed and prepared. Then, the facilitator would ask questions to the audience about what they saw, and their opinions and try to engage them in modifying (by stopping, jumping on the stage, asking questions) in a second round of the play. |
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Description: |
The theatre of the oppressed is originally from Brazil and its methodology and practice have extended worldwide. It is in itself, participatory, active and reactive. The play (theme, how is done, learnt and represented) is not decided by a director, but done in collaboration with the actors. Together, considering their background, life experience, and anything they want, build the play. The themes normally touch upon social problems and political issues, often with the goal of offering a critical perspective on society. The next stage is on the play day. The actors would play for the first time. Then, the facilitator would engage with the audience by asking questions, provoking reactions, and creating a moment of sharing and participation. Here the audience becomes the next actor. During a second representation of the play, the audience can stop the representation, jump in, ask questions, react, and talk. |
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Engagement with more-than-human entities |
The theatre of the oppressed’s methodology has the flexibility to expand into more-than-human worlds. Water, animals, forests, or trees are treated as mere resources for human use and consumption, and therefore, are under the oppression of human actions. In this way, the theatre of the oppressed can serve as a platform to develop imaginative and speculative practices, thereby incorporating these entities into the social critique of capitalist, neoliberal, and patriarchal systems. |
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Interpretation as “retracing”, that is what we can learn from these activities when we think about data generation for our own research |
As a participatory practice, the Theatre of the Oppressed is grounded in ethical values and a democratic approach, which shape every stage of the artistic and creative process. Applying these principles to academic research, especially in data collection and analysis, can broaden its scope and impact. For instance, the researcher could learn more about the process of how the data was generated by the participants, and how this process also affected the results in a collective reflection. A democratic framework also encourages collective reflection, highlighting how different perspectives interact and contribute to a richer, more nuanced interpretation of the results. |
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Sample, extract, case study, or description. |
(Personal experience, notes were taken). I attended an event held in Zagreb. It was framed on a multicultural night to welcome spring. The Theatre of the Oppressed in Zagreb were doing their play. The event lasted 1 hour, and the play was less than 10 minutes. In Zagreb, the group is meant for immigrants to learn Croatian by doing theatre, but by applying this methodology. They were not professional actors (different ages, genders, religions, with different migratory backgrounds) The play represented the difficulties of a refugee person in building a new life in Croatia: bureaucracy, surveillance, police power, control, negation, desperation. The play was in Croatian, but translations of the dialogue were distributed on paper around the audience in: English, Arabic, and Russian. The audience included people from many places, ages, genders. The facilitator connected very well with the audience by asking questions, looking for reactions, opinions. People talked, jumped on the stage, had questions, and reacted(!). Some interventions were on the stage about: criminalisation of solidarity, and gangs using immigrants to send drugs. Spoken interventions were about personal experiences. People also had some questions. Spoken comments were made in Croatian, Arabic and English. Translations were done immediately by the facilitator (HR to EN, EN to HR) and a volunteer in the audience (Arabic to HR, HR to Arabic) To end the event, the facilitator asked: How can we change this reality? What can we do in our daily life? How can we help and support each other? It ended with “ This is an invitation to you to come together to change this system”. People celebrated it a lot (clapping, screaming) Honestly, an amazing experience, very recommended |