Theatre of the Oppressed

Part of Pluto's 21st birthday series Get Political, which brings essential political writing in a range of fields to a new audience. 'One of the most revered figures in world theatre ...the liberation theologian of theatre.' Guardian 'Should be read by everyone in the world of theatre who has any pretensions at all to political commitment.' John Arden 'So remarkable, so original and so ground-breaking that I have no hesitation in describing the book as the most important theoretical work on the theatre in modern times.' George Wellwarth ''Theatre is a weapon...A weapon for liberation.'' This new edition of Theatre of the Oppressed brings a classic work on radical drama fully up to date and includes a new foreword by the author Augusto Boal. Boal restores theatre to its proper place as a popular form of communication and expression. He demonstrates the ways in which theatre has come to reflect ruling-class control, drawing on the theories of Aristotle and Machiavelli. He then shows the process reversed in Brechtian/Marxist poetics to the revolutionary potential of transforming the spectator into the actor. Throughout, Boal draws on his own experience in Latin America and illustrates his theory with practical examples.