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Celebrating 93 Years of Augusto Boal

Adrian Jackson looks at Theatre of the Oppressed and its place today.

Adrian Jackson

3/14/2024

We are about to hit the 15th anniversary since Augusto left us. Seems like only yesterday. It’s always risky (and fairly pointless) to try to tabulate where the world is in terms of the levels of oppression, compared with a previous time. While the background grind of systemic oppression is probably pretty much the same as it was in 2009, we have a number of headline issues which make the world feel an even more precarious place, even from a position of privilege in the relative comfort of the Global North. Gaza, Ukraine, AI, climate change, to name a few. I used to have an imaginary bumper sticker saying ‘What would Augusto do?’

And my guess is he would push on, as driven as ever, doing whatever he could on and off the stage. What happens to theatre when there is a shooting war on all around you? I find it difficult to imagine. During the civil wars in the former Yugoslavia, Susan Sontag worked with actors in a besieged Sarajevo to mount Waiting for Godot, as a way of making a statement both of solidarity and that the arts are as vital as ever in conflict zones. In Israel/Palestine now, the brave TO-based organisation Combatants for Peace continue to go about their work, though much of that work now is about taking care of each other and holding onto their ideals through these horrors; I imagine friends at Ashtar and Freedom Theatre in the West Bank are getting on with it much as usual. In the UK, beyond TO, our theatre-based network Artists in Exile has been doing its little best at least to make it easier for Ukrainians forced abroad by the conflict – a small piece of bread and butter activism which at least gives us some connection with what those survivors of oppression are dealing with.

In other places, the show does go on. I have just returned from Aotearoa – where there were substantial weekly demonstrations for Gaza, but less awareness of Ukraine - working on a piece called Not King Lear, with a remarkable gang called Hobson Street Theatre Company, originally somewhat inspired by Cardboard Citizens. Their practice is influenced by tikanga Māori, working processes informed by Māori culture and tradition. Every session starts and closes with a karakia, a sort of blessing, like a grace spoken before a meal. All participants reference their pau for the day or the project, which refers to the pillars which hold up a marai, the traditional meeting place – so your pau might be curiosity or patience or determination or whatever will sustain your work and the group through the day; our chief advisor usefully helped me understand that pau are not necessarily rigid, but can have flexibility, like the inflatable man blowing up and down outside a petrol station. The theatre space Hobson Street create is like I like to think Cardboard Citizens was at its best – a place without judgement where people with lived experience can grow, supported by each other through considerable difficulties. Even though our Not King Lear at Auckland Festival was not TO-based, I know my own practice, which always incorporates participation and testimony, is profoundly influenced by all the work I did at CCs using Forum to spark debate and open conversations which wouldn’t otherwise have happened.

And in May I will be working with another ex-homeless group in Minnesota, Zamya Theatre, who are very directly influenced by Boal – and we will be taking that show to the annual PTO conference, where I will be delivering a couple of workshops. More on that closer to the time. In the meantime, happy Boal day – the spirit lives on, the work continues to impact real lives. Not for the first (or last time), I quote Boal quoting Machado - no hay camino, se hace camino al andar. – there is no road, we make the road by walking it.

Viva Boal !