ABSTRACT
The basic premise of Theatre of the Oppressed is the evident expression of its dialectical core: an examination that identifies society as being crossed by relations of oppression. Of course, the shift from oppressive relations, in a collective and historical sense, to relations of interaction between the oppressed and the oppressors is a focus of tension in Augusto Boal’s dramatic plays, particularly in Forum Theatre. For the dialectical method, knowledge is totalizing because it explores the movement of contradictions and because it seeks the specific mediations that constitute the fabric of each totality. The dialectical view apprehends the transforming reality, thinking essentially about its contradictions. The dialectical way of thinking inquires about reality not in search of an essence, but rather as a relationship between forces in motion. In reality, a dialectical dramaturgy would seek to maximize the unity existing between the particular and the universal, insofar as the former exists throughout the latter.
