Sunday, January 27, 2013

Théâtre de l'Opprimé en France

Below is a paper I wrote for my Devising course on Theatre of the Oppressed in France. Titled "Théâtre de l'Opprimé en France", it focuses on Augusto Boal, his influence in France, and two theatre companies-- Entrées de Jeu and Groupe du Théâtre de l'Opprimé.

• • •

Théâtre de l’Opprimé: Boal in France
            When people think of French theatre-- or anything French for that matter-- the mind often conjures up the idea of something uppity or leftist. When people think of Theatre of the Oppressed, images of war-stricken South America and suffering, impoverished people come to mind. So what if France and Theatre of the Oppressed were proposed in the same sentence? As an undergraduate majoring in both French and Theatre Arts who happens to have a career goal in activist education, I wanted to explore the realm of Theatre of the Oppressed in France not only because it is an interesting topic for a paper, but also to do some self-benefiting exploration on where my two passions intersect. While South America experiences the oppression of dictatorships and decade-long wars, that does not mean European nations do not have social repressions on their citizens. This core truth that no one is immune to trials and tribulations has led to the spread of Theatre of the Oppressed to countries even as developed as France. And so begins the story of two theatre companies, Entrées de Jeu and Groupe de Théâtre de l'Opprimé, an ocean away in Brazil with the future-coworker and father-to-be of the company founders, a feisty Brazilian man named Augusto Boal.
            Augusto Boal was born on March 16, 1937, in Rio de Janero, Brazil, where he lived until 1971 when he was exiled after being arrested and tortured for his progressive theatre work that ran contrary to the dictatorship. During his exile, Boal spent time in Argentina, Peru, and France, developing his theatre forum, which was ultimately devised into his Theatre of the Oppressed. In 1974, after working on a Peruvian literacy campaign during 1973, he published his book Theatre of the Oppressed, and in 1978 after being appointed to teach at the Sorbonne, he set up a theatre group of the same name in Paris. In 1986, the dictatorship of Brazil crumbled, and Boal returned to Rio, where in 1993 he was elected to serve on the city council. Over the 30 years following his book publication, his practice of Theatre of the Oppressed spread to over 50 countries and his book was translated into 25 languages[1]. In 2009, Augusto Boal passed away, leaving behind a wealth of students and trained practitioners in the Theatre of the Oppressed, from Rio to Paris. Boal is quoted as saying, “Theatre is a weapon. A very efficient weapon. For this reason one must fight for it”, and develops this into a strong argument for Theatre of the Oppressed in his book[2]. Through the devising process of his theatre practices and the development and spread of his activist movement, Augusto Boal stressed the importance of "transferring to the people the means of production in the theatre so that the people themselves may utilize it"[3]. Though the methodology and idealism has changed through the years, Boal's fight for theatre has continued to thrive in Paris through the efforts of several theatre practitioners, practitioners such as his friend Bernard Grosjean and his son, Julian.
            Situated in the 14th arrondissement, the Compagnie Entrées de Jeu is the theatre company brainchild of Bernard Grosjean. Years ago, he and Augusto Boal co-founded "Compagnie de Jade, Theâtre du Chaos, and Berges"[4]. Though he began as an apprentice of Boal, Grosjean has adapted Theatre of the Oppressed to serve the purposes of the contemporary French social sphere, removing the "reference to oppression and the oppressed" from the company title because, while "very lively, [they] impose a certain structure too constraining to relate complexities of reading reality"[5]. After all, "it serves no purpose to go see [an audience] and explain to them that they are oppressed" when what they are dealing with is unemployment, gender barriers in male-dominated work spheres, alcoholism, AIDS, suicide in agriculture, and correct usage of medications[6]. These are the issues currently being faced by French society, so Grosjean developed a tweaked ambition for his company’s theatrical discussion: To place the spectator at the center of the action by inviting him/her to participate in finding the solution[7].
            Among recent workshops and presentations by Entrées de Jeu are topics such as relationships, contraception, and AIDS; suicide, old age, and stress in agriculture; drug addiction; and child-parent relationships. Over the years, Entrées de Jeu has become a big player in AIDS prevention in Ile-de-France, so much so that 60% of their performances each year are centered on this topic. In tackling AIDS and STD prevention, Entrées de Jeu has outlined to many audiences three areas of important decision-making: the first step together, the exceptional chance with a person, and the first night[8]. Their exploration with the audience in these presentations extends to "the emotional, romantic, and sexual girl-boy relationship" elements, all elements that, depending on how they are handled, contribute to either the prevention or spread of STDs[9]. In October 2012, The Bureau d'Information Jeunesse de la Nièvre organized a week-long event to raise awareness and promote discussion on these topics. Entrée de Jeu "presented on romantic relationships... [and talked] about contraception [as a means of] preventing abortions"[10]. However, their activism does not stop there.
            A huge epidemic of agricultural stress is sweeping France. As in many first-world countries, the increase of office jobs, outsourcing, and mechanically-performed tasks has created a negative correlation to the amount of needed agriculture workers and their sum income. The job and monetary stress has been felt nation-wide by farmers, especially by the elderly community, and a horrific trend in suicide has been detected. According to an article in Paris Normandie, France has a "reported 11,000 suicide deaths each year... However, the number of speculated suicides is 200,000, working out to approximately once every 3 minutes"[11]. The Mutualité Sociale Agricole (MSA) is the French organization overseeing the nation's agricultural happenings. Upon seeing the rising suicide rates among the elderly and agriculture workers, the minister of the MSA, Bruno LeMaire, chose to combat this tragedy using theatre. He invited Entrées de Jeu to present to audiences of farmworkers, and the group has consequently become one of the main players in this theatrical fight against stress and suicide in the agricultural life. Spectators are very grateful that these difficult topics are now being broached. Stress and suicide as an effect of the "weather, lack of solidarity amongst farmers, difficulty with banks, and administrative onerousness" have become somewhat tabooed subjects, and the interactive shows provide a way for these spectator-actors to explore ways of coping in their daily agriculture business, as well as finding more effective ways of communication.[12],[13]
            Entrée de Jeu has a special performance about coping for the elderly in the farming community. There is the prevalent danger that elderly folk living in the country draw themselves inward and cut themselves off from the outside world as soon as they being experiencing difficulty performing daily tasks. Grosjean and his players devise interactive pieces proposing situations these people may encounter. An example of three scenarios are "Good Foot, Good Eye: the need to accept doing less", "The roses of life: the importance of not letting yourself go", and "When appetite leaves...: the question of nutrition"[14]. Each scenario is presented in a general sense by company players, then each scenario is again presented, but with audience members playing as actors and giving suggestions as to how each situation should be handled.
            In terms of the relationship with outside entities, there is much pent-up anger among farmers that Entrées de Jeu attempts to help them reconcile. As one spectator commented, "It is the media who kills agriculture. We have an example of this with Mad Cow disease"[15]. So, the company makes sure that these sketches taken from daily agricultural life go beyond merely bouncing ideas around audience members. Rather, the spectators must "take to the game in stopping the piece to propose an alternative solution, in their eyes, less generic than the initial scene"[16]. After all, it is the generic and dissociated response of the media and other external powers that fan the flame of this problem in the agricultural realm.
            Similar practices are used by Grosjean's company when presenting on the topic of child-parent relations. This category branches off into various areas such as stress at home, drug use, control issues, and the cyberworld. When discussing domestic matters such as these, Entrées de Jeu visits middle schools, high schools, and parent groups. One such presentation with parents is titled "Accrocs d'écrans", or "Without Screens", covering the subject of the effects TVs and computers can have on kids, and how parents can balance the situation. The piece is comprised of four topics or situations. First, "It's just for laughs!" poses the situation of students and cyberstalking. Next, "Friends and False Friends" discusses the dangers of social forums and chatting with strangers. The third situation is "What becomes of images?", an exploration of the violation of privacy and the question of image rights. Last, the parental audience takes part in "It consoles me", the section about video game addiction and the effect of isolation.[17] Through these exercises, parents delve into and explore how to communicate better with their children and other family members about respect, tolerance, school, adolescent issues, and violence, as they respond to generic situations proposed by the players of Entrée de Jeu.
            More and more, theatre artists are being employed across the spectrum, from status quo high schools to homes for at-risk youth, to "loosen and free psychological tensions created by painful social situations"[18]. As the author of an article in L'Express magazine writes, "If the work of [Entrées de Jeu] is seductive, it's because it is rooted in [this day-to-day] reality." Grosjean supports this writer's statement in his description of himself as a journalist. Says Grosjean, "I meet with professionals in the subject area in question. I read, I ask questions, I listen... Then, instead of writing an article, I make a play"[19]. Grosjean is only one of many directors trained in their youth by Augusto Boal in the practice of Theatre of the Oppressed, so the seduction and effectiveness of solving problems through audiences re-working events from their lives can be found amidst many practitioners. One such theatre artist is especially close to Boal.
            There is a common expression that goes, "Like father, like son.” If no other situation is applicable, that of Augusto and Julian Boal most definitely is. Julian Boal grew up surrounded by theatre, since his mother, Cecilia, collaborated with his father, Augusto, as he devised his Theatre of the Oppressed. During the time the Boals lived in Paris, a history professor told Julian of Jana Sanskriti, a theatre artist in India. Julian fell so much in love with Sanskriti's work that, although he had grown up surrounded by his father's work, it was the influence of this Indian theatre practitioner that was the determining factor in his decision to professionally practice Theatre of the Oppressed.[20] Since then, he has traveled around the world with his father, written three books, and started his own theatre company that practices Theatre of the Oppressed.
            The Groupe de Théâtre de l'Opprimé is Julian Boal's theatre company, located in Paris's 12th arrondissement. Comprised of 10 players, GTO has been around for more than fifteen years. The company strives "to enrich, by the participatory techniques of the Theatre of the Oppressed, the animation of groups in a logical sequence of popular education; to be able to create a theatre forum; to experiment and/or reinforce the techniques of the improv game-- a struggle specific to the Theatre of the Oppressed; to understand the particular dramatic art of the theatre forum; and to use the Theatre of the Oppressed as a tool for social work and/or activist work"[21]. With these objectives, GTO creates interactive theatre that "favors the development and the abilities of everyone"[22]. To accomplish such an overarching goal, the company includes games and exercises that promote cooperation and group formation among strangers, reflection and debate of notions of power and oppression, development of group-proposed themes, and awareness of the different roles in a situation[23], as well as a season of devised, scripted, and rehearsed plays.
            The productions they produce take the form of both published works and original works. Currently playing in GTO's season are (allons) Enfants de la Poésie and Federico García Lorca's La Maison de Bernarda Alba. As goes the tagline for (allons) Enfants de la Poésie, "there is no age for being young"[24]. The production hopes to "wake up the child that is sleeping in more or less all of us" through the music and poetry performed by the actor/director Lucienne Deschamps[25]. The script is devised from the text of writers of today such as Bruno Doucey, Sylvie Nève, Roland Nadaus, and David Dumortier. The production welcomes children as well as adults for a musical and youthfully rejuvenating experience. In a different flare of artistry, the production of La Maison de Bernarda Alba used a new translation of the text by French Hispanist and translator Hervé Petit. This play, written in June 1936, was the last written by García Lorca, and is a premonition-like war tale of a newly widowed wartime wife, her five adult children, and the impending eight years of mourning following the death of their father.[26] Both of these plays, although coming from sources outside of the company, connect with the audience base and themes of oppression so rooted in the company's foundation.
            The last two work performed by GTO are titled Nelson de Rio... and La Terre. The former is a musically theatrical encounter with the Brazilian writer Nelson Rodrigues. Through humor and drama, music and theatrics, the Groupe de Théâtre de l'Opprimé explores the 30 years Nelson Rodrigues was an active figure in the forefront of Brazilian political countermovements through his articles, novels, and plays. The second play mentioned, La Terre, is written by José Ramón Fernandez, and tells of the Spain of the 1990s, "an olive grove apart from the world, a country ravaged by secrets and things left unsaid"[27]. It delves into the crimes society commits not by culprits, but rather by a mass of silence that creates and covers misdeeds. In this French translation, the audience experiences how the play is written in reality, a critique of the blindness and complacency with which humanity poisons its institutions.
            The broad spectrum of age in GTO's target audience was most likely influenced by the time Julian spent with his father working with Theatre of the Oppressed in school/educational settings. One example of this was the École de la 2é Chance, which translates to "The Second-Chance School". Augusto and Julian spent a week there during April 2006, helping young adults overcome professional difficulties by finding a blank page of sorts on which to find a solution through the release and exploration of their own personal fears and oppressions.[28] This method of working in an educational setting helped young adults find words they didn't think they had, as well as discovering new confidence in themselves and a new trust through community building.
            Although a Skype interview was unable to come to fruition, Julian told me during a brief email correspondence that for the past year or so, he hasn’t lived in Paris. According to GTO's website, the company is currently comprised of Rui Frati, Artistic Director; Toninho do Carmo, Musical Director; and the players, Léo Frati, Manuela Brazil, Vincent Vidal, Antonia Hayward, Teresa Ferreira, and Delphine Dey. Today, Julian himself travels to different parts of the world, from theatre conferences to college campuses, to lead workshops on Theatre of the Oppressed. He has currently brought his art to twenty-some countries, helping groups in festivals, productions, meetings, and more.[29] Reflecting upon his work, Julian is anything but arrogant. He takes, instead, a very contemplative approach when he discusses what he does and what this genre of theatre entails as a career. "We cannot be lulled into thinking that we are doing right in the world just because we are cultural workers; cultural workers often work for the same states that legitimize oppression."[30]
            From its origins with the Brazilian theatre artist Augusto Boal, the Theatre of the Oppressed is now practiced worldwide in over 50 countries. Although social climates have shifted and changed from its origins in the early 1970s, practitioners of Theatre of the Oppressed still work with the idea of the spectator-actor. From Brazil to France and beyond, students and elderly, the young and old alike, are creating theatre though they may have never done so before, are being introduced to other people in similar situations as their own, and are being shown how any location can be used as a forum of exploration and expression. The positive result of working with Theatre of the Oppressed has been acclaimed not only by agriculture workers such as those who played with Entrées de Jeu, and students such as those with whom Julian Boal worked, but also by psychoanalysts whose studies claim that people need to work through their binding situations by creating and playing around with alternate reactions and solutions in reproductions of scenarios from their lives[31]. As Bernard Grosjean, founder of the company Entrées de Jeu, has been quoted as saying, we can’t go to an audience of high-risk citizens—be them farmers, students at a juvenile detention center, or victims of natural disasters— and tell them they are oppressed. Instead, the beauty of Theatre of the Oppressed is that it is adaptable to the social struggles of the day. Everyone has hurdles and demons that they deal with on a personal, local, and global level, and as the work of Bernard Grosjean and Julian Boal has demonstrated, the Theatre of the Oppressed is alive and thriving just as much in 2012 as it was in 1974.



[1] Aleks Sierz. "Obituary: Augusto Boal." Guardian. (5 May 2009). Web. 2 Dec. 2012.
[2] Diana Taylor. "Augusto Boal, 1931-2009." In Memory (2009): 10-11. LexusNexus. Web. 30 Nov 2012.
[3] Same as above.
[4] Igor Hansen-Love. "Du théâtre pour déjouer les crises." L'express. 15 Mar 2012. Web. 3 Dec. 2012.
[5] Same as footnote 4.
[6] Same as footnote 4.
[7] Same as footnote 4.
[8] "Théâtre et débat sur la sexualité des ados." La Nouvelle République du Centre Ouest. 10 Dec 2007. 12. LexusNexus. Web. 29 Nov 2012.
[9] "Un théâtre interactif et participatif." Le Journal du Centre. 24 Nov 2011. LexusNexus. Web. 29 Nov 2012.
[10] "Contraception et ivg Information." Le Journal du Centre 4 Oct 2012. LexusNexus. Web. 29 Nov 2012.
[11] "Devant des difficulté quotidiennes sans cesse grandissantes, le monde rural souffre...; Le stress est en campagne." Paris-Normandie 6 Feb 2012. 20. LexusNexus. Web. 29 Nov 2012.
[12] "VER; Verdun sa région/Charny." L'Est Républicain 17 Nov 2012. 4. LexusNexus. Web. 29 Nov 2012.
[13] "Neufchatel-en-bray. Près de deux cent spectateurs on assisté au débat théâtral organisé par la MSA; Une autre approche du stress." Paris-Normandie 21 Feb 2012. 19. LexusNexus. Web. 29 Nov 2012.
[14] "Spectacle. "Du côté de la vie", un débat théâtral apprécié." Le Télégramme 21 Jan 2012.          LexusNexus. Web. 29 Nov 2012.
[15] Same as footnote 13.
[16] Same as footnote 11.
[17] "Un théâtre interactif et participatif." Le Journal du Centre. 24 Nov 2011. LexusNexus. Web. 29 Nov 2012.
[18] Chocas, Viviane. "Les planches de l’espoire." Le Monde (2003): n.pag. LexusNexus. Web.
            29 Nov 2012.
[19] Same as footnote 4.
[20] Mado Chatelain-Le Pennec. "Dans les coulisses du social." ERES | Trames (2010): 214-218. Cairn.info. Web. 28 Dec 2012.
[21] Same as footnote 20
[22] "Théâtre Forum." Théâtre de l'Opprimé. (2012). Web. 25 Nov. 2012.
[23] Same as footnote 20.
[24] "(allons) Z'Enfants de la Poésie." Théâtre de l'Opprimé. (2012). Web. 2 Dec. 2012.
[25] Same as footnote 24.
[26] "La Maison de Bernarda Alba." Théâtre de l'Opprimé. (2012). Web. 2 Dec. 2012.
[27] "Nos créations." Théâtre de l'Opprimé. (2012): n. page. Web. 10 Dec. 2012.
[28] "Théâtre participatif." L'Est Républicain 3 Feb 2009. 8. LexusNexus. Web. 28 Feb 2012.
[29] Same as footnote 20.
[30] Megan Alrutz. "Youth and Theatre of the Oppressed (Review)." Theatre Journal 63.3 (2011): 485-486. Project Muse. Web. 28 Nov 2012.
[31] Same as footnote 18.

No comments:

Post a Comment