Forum theatre

Forum theatre is a commonly used tool from Theatre of the Oppressed framework. It begins with crafting and performing a short play that dramatizes real situations faced by the participants, and that ends with the protagonist(s) being oppressed. After the first performance, the play or scene is repeated with one crucial difference: The spectators become “spect-actors” and can at any point yell “freeze” and take the place of an actor to attempt to transform the situation or the outcome. Forum theatre is an exercise in democracy in which anyone can speak and [anyone can act]Anyone can act).

One of the first things that spect-actors realize is that, as in life, if they don’t intervene, nothing will change. The next thing spect-actors find is that doing “something” is not enough, it must be strategic (see: PRINCIPLE: Choose tactics that support your strategy). The people acting as oppressors on stage will maintain their oppression until they are authentically stopped — and just like in life, stopping them isn’t easy. Forum theatre thus becomes a laboratory to experiment with different courses of action.

The point is not to show what we think other people should do — it is not theatre of advice. The point is to discover what we can do.

The protagonists should be characters that all or most of the people in the room can identify with, so that when they intervene, they are rehearsing their own action. The point is not to show what we think other people should do — it is not theatre of advice. The point is to discover what we can do.

Forum theatre is facilitated by someone called a Joker, who engages the spect-actors both on and off stage in dialogue throughout the process. After an intervention, the Joker may ask, “Did this work? Was this realistic? Can you do this in real life?”

Forum theatre was developed in a context where oppression, the oppressed, and the oppressors were clearly defined. Its originator, Augusto Boal, was living in exile from the Brazilian military dictatorship, and social movements across the continent were struggling against harsh military repression. Since then, the technique has been adapted to countless other contexts around the world, as practitioners seek to grapple with the complicated power relationships of more diverse groups of people. Often interventions will uncover multiple layers of power, dramatizing characters who are simultaneously oppressed and oppressing others.

Forum theatre is an effective tool of creative activism, useful for generating interventions, as an intervention itself, and for building common strategic frameworks for movements.

Originally published in Beautiful Trouble.