Playing Boal in Northern Ireland

Abstract

Augusto Boal's theory and practice of the Theatre of the Oppressed have generally been received with enthusiasm in the United States and in Europe as a model of revolutionary theatre. No doubt, since the first publication of O Teatro do Oprimido in 1974 (English translation 1979), the book has come to be seen as a "classic" and has had a major impact on theatrical theory and practice inside and outside the Brazilian post-colonial context. Now that twenty six years have gone by since this seminal work first appeared in print. we can look back to reassess the ways in which theatre practitioners have deployed the book's charged argument for theatre's revolutionary potential and in some cases have transformed Boal's radical techniques.