The Aesthetics of the Oppressed

Augusto Boal, The Aesthetics of the Oppressed (London and New York: Routledge, 2006) Aside from being, arguably, one of the most important theatre theorists and practitioners of the last fifty years, Augusto Boal is also a master storyteller. As Paul Dwyer (2004) contends in a New Theatre Quarterly commentary on the Origin' story of Forum Theatre, Boal has long had a marvellous propensity for invoking the poetic realms, through narratives and anecdotes, to address the problematic space between practice and theory. In this way, the central paradigms of the tradition we recognise as 'Theatre of the Oppressed' have been articulated, established and debated. In his latest book. The Aesthetics of the Oppressed, Boal reflects upon more than thirty years of practising and theorising the Theatre of the Oppressed (TO). From a story about a 2002 workshop in Middle England, he weaves a brief story of the development of various strands of TO techniques, using the metaphor of a tree and genealogy to visually articulate the growth of this tradition. This is followed by a series of essays under the title of ¢ Theoretical Foundation'. Borrowing notions from semiotics, linguistics and cognitive neuroscience, Boal constructs an aesthetic rationale for the practice of TO, principally by presenting an argument for its necessity. This argument is based on the notion that human perception occurs on three different levels. The simplest mode is thought of as 'information - the receptive level'; a second mode is described as 'knowledge and tactical decision-making - the more active level' which causes basic forms of categorisations and actions; the third mode is referred to as 'ethical consciousness - the human level' by which complex categorisations, meaning-making and valuations can be said to occur (34-6). Boal argues that the practice of TO can promote the development of these perceptual modes or capacities in individual participants, by providing opportunities by which to critique structures or values, as well as by providing experiences and models for processing that can serve as an 'apprenticeship for citizenship' (37). For Boal, TO achieves this through the way it approaches the four fundamental elements that are identified in the 'tree' as the roots and the immediate earth from which it grows. These elements are referred to as the Word, the Image, the Sound, and the Ethics. The Word is concerned with written text, with suggestions of narratives of interest, identity and poetry as starting points in working with participants. In the first three of these elements, Boal revisits the principles of games and exercises described in his earlier books, with a view towards developing the aesthetic rationale of TO in employing these approaches. Here the poetic nature of this rationale is further revealed. For example, in articulating the element of the Image, he declares: We must develop our capacity not only to hear but also to see. The creation of images produced by ourselves rather than by nature or a machine, serves to show that the world can be re-created. The creation of Images of the world as we want it to be, is the best way to penetrate the future. (46) Boal makes a claim for TO as 'an ethical theatre' and a Humanist project in which 'nothing can be done unless we know why and for whom it is being done' (50). Here the problem ofpoesis as a 'theoretical foundation' gets foregrounded. These essays, and the book in general I believe, read more effectively as a manifesto, in the traditions of Artaud and Grotowski, than they do as articulations of an aesthetic theory. Rather than downplaying its importance, reading it as a manifesto seems more appropriate, as the ultimate justification for this text is arguably its impact upon a practical and an experiential tradition. Arguably as well, Boal has written stories, manifestoes and descriptions of workshops throughout his career, in the tradition of Stanislavski's writings. …