By approaching Brazilian artistic movements and historical performances as well as challenging the critique around Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed, the research contributes to the debate on the political reach of theatre that aims at the radical democratization of society.
This book retrieves the narrative and social context of Brazilian historical performances and artistic movements to restore, with the support of a vast literature review, aesthetic analysis and the debate around engagement, the due complexity to the multifaceted concept of political theatre. Broadening the perspective, it addresses one of the most significant contemporary resonances of such an itinerary: Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed, challenging canons of the role of performers and spectators. The research also seeks, by refusing pamphleteering or professorial responses, to shed light on the contested actuality of theatre's social function, especially after the extreme right wave that has been testing the usefulness of traditional institutions. Preface - Acknowledgments - Opening remarks - 1 The foundations we stand on: theoretical context - 2 Theatre in exceptional times: historical context - 3 Teatro de Arena and the fantasy of a popular theatre - 4 A Mais Valia vai acabar, seu Edgar and the CPC: allegory of a utopia - 5 Teatro Oficina and O Rei da Vela: crushing illusions - 6 A political critique of Forum Theatre - What now for the Brazilian political theatre? - Works cited - Filmography - Index
José de Ipanema is a Brazilian actor graduated from the Federal University of Ceará, Fortaleza. With a PhD from the University of Cologne, Germany, he has a Master's degree in Performing Arts from UNI-RIO, Rio de Janeiro. He is also an author, researcher, and theatre producer with research interests in performativity, identity, theatre of the oppressed, and political theatre.
