Theatre of The Oppressed

The International Theatre of the Oppressed Organisation (TO) was born in 1971 in Brazil, under the very young form of Newspaper Theatre , with the specific goal of dealing with local problems – soon, it was used all over the country. In Europe, TO expanded and the Rainbow of Desire came into being – first to understand psychological problems, later even to create characters in any play. They discovered that all those forms, independently where they had been created, could be developed and used all around the world, because they are simply a Human Language.

Theatre of the Oppressed is the Game of Dialogue: we play and learn together. All kinds of Games must have Discipline - clear rules that we must follow. At the same time, Games have absolute need of creativity and Freedom. TO is the perfect synthesis between the antithetic Discipline and Freedom. Without Discipline, there is no Social Life; without Freedom, there is no Life.  TO's Declaration of Principles 

INVISIBLE THEATRE – To be a citizen does not mean merely to live in society, but to transform it. If I transform the clay into a statue, I become a Sculptor; if I transform the stones into a house, I become an architect; if I transform our society into something better for us all, I become a citizen. Invisible Theatre is a direct intervention in society, on a precise theme of general interest, to provoke debate and to clarify the problem that must be solved. It shall never be violent since its aim is to reveal the violence that exists in society, and not to reproduce it. Invisible Theatre  is a play (not a mere improvisation) that is played in a public space without informing anyone that it is a piece of theatre, previously rehearsed. Invisible Theatre is the penetration of fiction into reality and of reality into fiction, which helps us to see how much fiction exists in reality, and how much reality exists in fiction.

IMAGE-THEATRE – Words are emptinesses that fill the emptiness (vacuum) that exists between one human being and another. Words are lines that we carve in the sand, sounds that we sculpt in the air. We know the meaning of the word we pronounce, because we fill it with our desires, ideas and feelings, but we don’t know how that word is going to be heard by each listener. Image Theatre is a series of Techniques that allow people to communicate through Images and Spaces, and not through words alone.

LEGISLATIVE THEATRE - Theater is not enough to change reality, we all agree. Legislativ Theatre is the utilization of all forms of the Theatre of the Oppressed with the aim of transforming the citizens legitimate deires into Laws. After a normal Forum session, we create a space similar to a Chamber where laws are made, and we proceed to create a simular ritual of lawmaking, following the same official procedure of presenting Projects based on the spect-actors interventions, defending or refusing them, voting, etc. At the end, we collect the approved suggestions and try to put pressure upon the lawmakers to have those laws approved.