Editorial: a Reply to Roberto Mazzini

By Ronald Matthijssen, Formaat

There are no dogmas within Theatre of the Oppressed, or, as Roberto Mazzini put it, there is no single dogmatic truth. I think we all agree. Theatre of the Oppressed covers a wide range of personal and cultural ways of performing, joking, of rituals and organisation forms. Some of us prefer to work with amateur actresses, others work with professionals, or a combination of the two.

The language of theatre
On the other hand we use the language of theatre, an ability that can be traced back to the beginning of mankind and that has been developed through the centuries. Augusto Boal points out that we don't invent the laws of theatre, we discover them. Like himself, many of us have discovered their own laws in their own cultural context, but they are the same laws. The question that remains is: do these laws have to be taught before you can start to play theatre, any kind of theatre, including Theatre of the Oppressed?

Learning to use the tools
In the Netherlands we believe that there must be some sort of bottom line to our performances. There are several reasons: we have experienced that a Forum play is more beautiful, more attractive and therefore more subject to analogy and identification when we work on its structure with the tools of the masters of theatre: Sophocles, Stanislawski, Brecht and also Boal. Even more so when we pay attention to the stage, the mask, the light and even music. We try to create an aesthetic space, so that it can dichotomize both actors and spect-actors. For this reason we believe we must first train our actresses, also when they are amateurs. We believe we can be more effective if we do so.

Quality secures financing
The second reason is closely related to the continuing question of financing our activities. If we believe that Theatre of the Oppressed is just as much theatre as any other kind of theatre, but with the bonus of making the audience active and not passive, it must be worth to be financed in a proper way. The quality of our work, both in an artistic as well as in a pedagogic sense, is what we advertise with.

Research development
A third reason is the importance of introspection. Roberto Mazzini points out, and I agree, that Theatre of the Oppressed is form of research, a rehearsal for change. In his famous quote, Augusto Boal says that anyone can play theatre, even the actors. But just as it is true that we all have eyes to see and ears to hear, sometimes we must learn to look and listen closer. We must learn this in order to understand what we do on stage, and to be able to understand what people are showing us when they intervene, or when they sculpt an image. Through introspection we can develop sympathy and thus create credible analogies and learn how to play our "cards" in dialogue with the spect-actors.

Towards a TO Institute
For this reason we are thinking about creating a Theatre of the Oppressed Institute, where it can be studied, taught and learned. A place where the vast experience of more than 40 years is available for research and further development. We believe that Theatre of the Oppressed is a craft, which needs to be nourished and passed on to others. We need to look after our tools and teach others how they can be used. Not how they should be used, because that is part of everyone's personal development. A development that should enjoy the widest range of options. We must be able to look in many directions. At least that is how we see it.

Under Pressure 1, January 2000