Theatre of the Oppressed Theorised: Who, How, and What Comprises Forum Theatre's capacity to liberate?

... Theatre of the Oppressed Theorised: Who, How, and What Comprises Forum Theatre's capacity to liberate? "I adored chemistry... [But] a chemist who doesn't like sulphur is like a doctor who doesn't like blood."1 On visiting Boal's home in Copacabana I was delighted by his theatrical surroundings of a sea view and colourful wall-to-wall shelving of literature. But never, in my (quite modest) imagination, did I envisage amidst his dramatic haven an open copy of 'The User's Guide to the Brain'. To my dismay, Boal's upbringing was of one bored by test tubes and examinations and rewarded with a place to study chemistry at university. He elaborated; "If you use images, words, and sounds it broadens the mind... The more you exercise your brain, the more you deepen your knowledge."2 Throughout this paper I have volunteered the conclusion that Boal's theatre practices freely manifest emotions from an actor's body. His ever-apparent commitment to

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