ABSTRACT
This chapter considers Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) as a political intervention, and therefore one that is only as good as its fight against the specific articulation of oppression that somehow commanded its creation. The work explores how contemporary problems of TO cannot be addressed simply by calling them mistakes, treason, or bad use. Using the same method in different times can only lead to different outcomes. The author argues that Forum Theatre was the theatrical transposition of guerilla principles: an individual can make a difference by making a spectacular gesture of refusal of an oppressive situation, a gesture that would then strengthen the audience/people in their will to fight. Nowadays, when arguably no revolutionary perspective is on the horizon, the pathos of the hero would then be absorbed by neoliberal subjectivity, where heroism is the capacity to always fight for your own survival in an environment considered both hostile and uncontrollable.
