Presentation Forum Theater Justine Barnier

The forum Theater, a political theater...

On the first hand, i will explain the origins of the forum theater.

On the other hand, i will describe a typical session and i will try to identify political dimensions of the forum theater.

It got into France by Augusto BOAL, a man of Brezilian Theater, in the 70’s.

It was inspired by the « théatre de l’Opprimé », a theater with political dimension which was created in Brazil, during the dictatorship of Castelo Branco in the 60’s.

These forms of theater are considered as a tool of political action, for citizen emancipation and autonomy.

So, a forum theater session is very regulate :

It begins with a meeting between actors and spectators. The spectators are the participants.

The actors come on, and act the fist little scene (not more than fifteen minuts)

This little scene concerns a particular issue and the end is pessimistic. The theme is often the reason why participants gathered themselves. It concerns an oppression (domestic violence or descrimation for exemple).

During the scene, the Jocker (an actor) stops the play and speaks with the participants, he initiates a debate between them.

Through this debate, the scene is acted again. Each participant can stop the scene and change the course of event. Participants are actors and are free to intervein. So, the exploitation of the subject is collective.

The political dimension  is very important, it promotes freedom of citizen’s expression.

It’s an emancipation tool against oppression that they suffer.

Forum theater is more used around the world, in schools with teenagers, in firms for management, in arts, culture, politics, psychological medecine…

In Bordeaux, OXO association pratices Forum Theater also, in school, in communautary centers or on public space.

To conclude, I must qualify my speach because it is a very good tool for emancipation and accountability of spectators. It questiones the role of spectator and it is an alternative method to stimulate debate. It is a tool of dialogue between men and women, people of different culture, inside groups…

But, it is very diffult to assess the impact of it.

It is also a simple place of entertainement for people as improvisation or traditional theater does.