​CHANGING THE LENS

Forum theatre, in essence, is an audience-interactive theatrical form, and an avenue for communities to explore issues of oppression and frustration, such as the exploitation of labour or poverty.

It was first developed by Brazilian theatre practitioner Augusto Boal (1931-2009) as part of his canon of techniques for Theatre of the Oppressed (See ‘Theatre of the Oppressed’).

A Forum Theatre piece is typically developed and performed by community members who have experience with the specific issue under investigation, and pieces always deliberately end at the moment of crisis.

In performance, the piece is run once through from start to finish, so that audience members have an understanding of the situation presented in the play as well as the problems within the situation. Subsequently, the piece is re-enacted, but this time the audience is invited to interrupt the action at any point by yelling ‘stop!’ when they recognize an oppressive moment.

 

In other words, audience members have the opportunity to come onstage in a Forum Theatre piece, replace the struggling character, and try out an idea to improve the situation. There is no right or wrong answer to this – rather, the idea is to explore different approaches. As Boal noted, the role of theatre is not “to show the correct path, but only to offer the means by which all possible paths may be examined” (Boal 141).

​​

References
Boal, Augusto. Theatre of the Oppressed. New York, NY: Theatre Communications Group, 1985. Print.

​

Further reading

Hakemulder, Frank. “Forum Theater Effects on Beliefs About Business.” ILO Enter-Growth (2007). Print.
Moore, Philip. “Acting Out: Using Drama to Confront Male Stereotypes and Fantasies.” Probation Journal 40.3 (1993). Print.