São Paulo – Brazilian theatre director Augusto Boal, the founder of the Theatre of the Oppressed Centre, should be honoured today (25) by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) in Paris. The ceremony, to take place at the organisation’s offices, should explain the importance of the work developed by Boal. On Friday (27), the World Theatre Day, Boal should deliver a message at the Théâtre de la Ville, to an estimated audience of 1,000 people.
The methodology developed by Boal also makes theatre a space for discussion of daily life and a tool for social transformation. The playwright makes it clear, however, that it is not the method, but the people who use it who are capable of modifying society. "The Theatre of the Oppressed is a set of aesthetic instruments that help generate better understanding of the oppressive reality and train ways of fighting against this oppression. The Theatre of the Oppressed, in itself, does nothing. I always say that a key does not open any door: the person does it, using the key," he said in an interview to ANBA that was published in December 2006.
Apart from a photography exhibit of some of his work around the world, the celebration of the date should also include play "The cook said to the rabbit: shall we prepare dinner?", written by Julián Boal, Augusto’s son.
Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1931, Boal is the author of the message of the International Theatre Institute for 2009, whose entirety was published in the last edition of the Unesco Mail. "We are obliged to invent another world because another world is possible. But it is up to us to build it with our hands in the scene, on the statge and in life. We are all authors, and citizens are not those who live in society: they are those who transform it," according to the message.
Worldwide
The playwright has already travelled to over 70 countries, in several parts of the world, participating in conferences and disclosing his methodology. In the Arab world, he visited Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Sudan and Tunisia.
In Palestine, special highlight goes to the work developed with experimental theatre group Ashtar, based in Ramallah, on the West Bank. The group has become a multiplier of Boal’s idea in the Middle East.
The centre
The Theatre of the Oppressed Centre was established 23 years ago in Rio de Janeiro. The methodology, however, was created by Boal in the 1970s. As he was exiled from the country, between 1971 and 1986, he developed the technique in the countries he visited, in Latin America and Europe. With his return to Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, where he lives, became the centre of activities of the Theatre of the Oppressed. The methodology is currently reproduced by several groups in Brazil and is also applied in prisons.
*Translated by Mark Ament