Thursday, March 05, 2009

Theatre of the Oppressed

I've been very impressed with the two leaders of Jana Sanskriti, a theatre movement in West Bengal, who have been visiting North America for the first time. Their group, which performs in villages throughout the state, is part of the Theatre of the Oppressed movement which originated with Augusto Boal in Brazil 35 years ago. Their observations on people's theatre, oppression, religion and politics, and activism in a state with an officially leftist government have given me much to think about.