In 1992, Augusto Boal, the creator of Theater of the Oppressed (see THEORY: Theater of the Oppressed), was faced with a dilemma. His theater work was an international sensation. Centers for the Theater of the Oppressed were up and running in both France and Brazil, and people all over the world were practicing his ideas. At the same time, he was facing pressure at home in Brazil to run for the position of vereador (a position similar to that of a City Councilor in North America) in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Faced with a choice between the two, Boal decided not to choose. Instead, he combined the two possibilities and passions into one—and legislative theater was born.
Legislative theater is essentially a forum theater performance—a short play about a particular issue or set of issues that ends in a crisis, which the audience is then invited to help solve by taking the place of one of the characters on stage (see TACTIC: Forum theater)—but with a key difference. The difference is that the audience interventions are followed by a brainstorm and discussion of policies or laws that could help solve some of the problems that came up in the performance, or that could help bring about some of the solutions “spect-actors” (the engaged audience) had offered during the performance. In some iterations of legislative theater, a later step involves mock legislatures being created to debate bills drafted based on the laws or policies previously suggested in the theater exercise.
Boal’s election campaign literature explained his rationale:
“I want to make politics but I don’t want to change my profession—I am a man of the theater! For me, this was always possible and now it is necessary: theater is political and politics is theater.”
Boal was one of 42 vereadors elected from a field of 1,000 candidates. Over the next four years, he developed the methods of legislative theater, forming 19 permanent Theater of the Oppressed companies in Rio, and from that work, introducing 30 pieces of legislation. In 13 of these 30 cases, as Boal put it, “desire became law” and laws were changed based on the proposals that emerged from the exercises.
To those who say that theater is nice but has no tangible outcomes, legislative theater may be the answer. Its intent is policy change… and it boasts all of theater’s educational and artistic virtues to boot!
