In the Politisches Theatre lecture (1994) in Vienna, Austria, Boal narrates the trajectory of the Theatre of the Oppressed as well as several key moments in the organization’s history. Beginning with the socio-political history of Brazil in the 1960s, Boal marks the military dictatorship, discriminatory land laws, police abuse, drug trade in the slums, and migration as inspiration for developing this method of theater.
One of the early works called The Peasants’ Story was an important turning point for the Theatre of the Oppressed, because it taught Boal and his fellow actors not to create plays that demanded actions and risks they were not ready to take. He said, “I will never again do plays to incite people to do things I am not ready to do.” From there, with Forum Theater, Boal began to encourage others to express themselves and create theater works such as The Naked People Scene. In this way, people understood their problems to be political and themselves as active participants in resisting their oppression.
