What is Theatre of the Oppressed? The Theatre of the Oppressed is a participatory form of theatre developed by Brazilian drama theorist, political activist and theatre practitioner Augusto Boal. Originally developed to give poor and disenfranchised communities a more powerful voice, it soon grew into…
Polish theorist and practitioner Jerzy Grotowski (1933–1999) is today best known for his poor theatre form, The Laboratory Theatre and tiny Theatre of 13 Rows in regional Poland. But his poor theatre concept and practice were just one of many phases in a career spanning…
While the origins of slapstick humour are most commonly associated with the highly physical Italian Commedia dell’Arte in the 16th to 18th centuries, there is evidence of the form existing earlier in Roman Atellan farces. The wooden paddle used to whack characters in Commedia dell’Arte…