Theatre of the Oppressed

Theatre of the Oppressed—Augusto Boal

© 1974 © 1979 English Translation

Translation by Charles A. & Maria-Odilia Leal McBride

Section 2: Machiavelli and the Poetics of Virtù

Reaction

            When society changes, it does so from within. It seems that the components of the structure in which people live are dependent upon who places them there and why.  The parts of a society can be small and affect only a handful of people or the components can be so large that the numbers of the populace that are impacted by these components are too many to count.

            Boal explains how in the eleventh century, the structure of the feudal system is the society. He describes how the arts are influenced by those creating and engaging in them and how they (the arts) are used to promote the on-going theories of the people in charge.  Machiavelli presents the transition between the abstract ideas of the feudal lords and the concrete concepts of the bourgeois and how that change impacted those involved. He points out that it is difficult for people under the control of others to not cling to the ideals of the masters.  I see that even today when the members of society work against their best interests and choose leaders who will keep them subjugated.

            Machiavelli names Shakespeare as a bourgeois dramatist based on the characters which inhabit his plays.  I agree to a point, but have to state that on close examination, all but a handful of the characters found in Shakespeare’s writings adhere to the ideals of the dominant society.  Those who are able to grow beyond such ideals are magical in nature and never really belonged to the mainstream society in the first place.

            For the arts in general, and theater specifically to offer a new structure for society and its members, I agree with Boal that there needs to be a fundamental change—in society.  The arts need to be accepted as a tool for guidance to change.  We cannot continue to perpetuate what has been handed to us.  We must look at where we are and use what we have generated from our own culture and develop change from there.