Drama strategy where spectators are invited to enter and transform dramatic action; innovation used mainly for political purposes by Augusto Boal and others.
Members of the audience watch a scene - usually on a political or social theme - and are then invited to stop the action and to suggest alternative ways of playing the scene.
The audience become spect-actors, rather than passive spectators.
Brazilian director Augusto Boal (1931 - 2009) developed a method of forum theatre for, about and by the oppressed, who act as “spect-actors” (rather than spectators) to examine and change the existence in which they live, through drama.
Boal’s key practices:
Forum theatre
Image theatre: where the “spect-actors” are asked to sculpt their bodies and other participants’ bodies to create images (tableaux) representing particular situations, emotions or ideals. Boal encouraged the images to be created spontaneously so as to articulate raw emotions and ideas.
Invisible theatre: where a rehearsed play is performed in a public space without the public knowing that they are seeing a performance. This form was used to focus on social themes and to incite debate within society.
Legislative theatre: similar to forum theatre except the theme of the drama is based on local government.
Newspaper theatre
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