Review: Theatre of the Oppressed
Editorial Review - Kirkus ReviewsBoal, a South American theater-revolutionary now living in Portugal, presents here his passionately Marxist, painfully doctrinaire credo of theater-as-politics. Boal contends that theater has been a repressive weapon ever since Aristotle, who constructed ""the first, extremely powerful poetic-political system for the intimidation of the spectator. . . ."" How so? Because Aristotle's whole notion of tragic-flaws-purged-through-catharsis is really, says Boal, just a scheme ""to eliminate all that is not commonly accepted, including the revolution, before it takes place. . . it is designed to bridle the individual, to adjust him to what preexists."" And this ""repression of the people"" via Aristotelian poetics, has continued right up through today's TV, as in Sesame Street, where ""The little defenseless spectators are exposed to that competitive, organized, coherent, and coercive world"" of capitalism. The lumbering dialectical reasoning here may be ludicrously reductive, but it is at least clear--which can't be said of Boars murky analysis of what happened when the bourgeoisie (Shakespeare to Ionesco) got a hold of theater. And though Brecht pleases Boal by using characters purely as spokesmen for economic and social forces, Boal is annoyed--at length--by Brecht's semantics: ""Brecht should have called his [poetics] Marxist poetics!"" So what does Boal suggest to replace Aristotle, to hasten the revolution? First: the audience should join in the action. Second: everyone should use Boal's jargon-heavy, schematic ""Joker"" system for breaking any play down into a dialectical presentation. Those interested in theater strictly as a propaganda tool will want to absorb Boars techniques; those with broader interests can stick to Brecht for theater-as-politics and avoid Boal's shrill, oppressive didacticism.
Review: Theatre of the Oppressed
User Review - Taylor - GoodreadsFascinating. Read full review
Review: Theatre of the Oppressed
User Review - Phil - GoodreadsI would give this 3.5 stars, but goodreads doesn't have a half star option. What I like about Baol's book is the interesting and illuminating examination of Aristotle's Poetics as a political text ... Read full review
Review: Theatre of the Oppressed
User Review - Dan - Goodreadswhat a man, what a life - what a book? Read full review
Review: Theatre of the Oppressed
User Review - Sean Estelle - GoodreadsThis was such a satisfying read. Dense, but satisfying. Boal applies 4 periods/thinkers to a Marxist, performative analysis - Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hegel, and Brecht - and then synthesizes all the ... Read full review
Review: Theatre of the Oppressed
User Review - David M. - GoodreadsI lost interest half-way through. It started promisingly with a discussion of how Aristotle's theory of the theater related to his ethics & politics, but by the time he got to Hegel my eyes glazed over. Read full review
Review: Theater Of The Oppressed
User Review - Ruja - GoodreadsThis book finally went to its friends in the could-not-finish group. I have to say I struggled through and got almost to the end but just could not read even one more line of this. I went that far ... Read full review
Review: Theatre of the Oppressed
User Review - Alex - GoodreadsIt's the only book of its kind in existence if West Coast USA library catalogs are indication. I will eventually get around to purchasing this book but it's more theory than practice so other books are more essential to my work. Read full review
Review: Theatre of the Oppressed
User Review - Mr. Walsh Walsh - GoodreadsI'm enjoying his point of view on Brecht vis-a-vis Aristotle...A little heady, but fascinating. I found Boal's explanation of Brecht's epic theater and his illumination of Character as Object. I think ... Read full review
Review: Theatre of the Oppressed
User Review - Dont - GoodreadsReviewing the comments here on Good Reads, one clearly gets the impression that although first published in 1979, Boal's book on a radical dramaturgy remains very much essential reading today. I'd ... Read full review
