ABSTRACT
The title of Theatre of the Oppressed might seem to imply that the book contains a discussion of theatre produced by and relevant to the lives of the socially disempowered. However, only a limited part of the text directly examines this. Theatre of the Oppressed claims that originally theatre was a practice shared by all. Boal refers to performance 'created by and for the people', 'a celebration in which all could participate freely'. Throughout Theatre of the Oppressed Boal is concerned with the nature of empathy and specifically with its misuse and abuse. Boal describes the development of Western theatre from classical tragedy to medieval drama as a history of control exercised by more-or-less stable political systems marked by a clearly defined social ethos. A central element of Hegel's philosophy is his conception of what it means for human beings to be free and his perception of world history as 'the progress of the consciousness of freedom'.
