ABSTRACT
This book starts from the statement of a paradox: How did a form with an ambition to be the height of political theatre become increasingly popular over a span of time in which, arguably, revolutionary politics appear to have ebbed? As Brazilian director and theorist Augusto Boal, who developed Theatre of the Oppressed, famously put it, “Perhaps the theater [of the oppressed] is not revolutionary in itself; but have no doubts it is a rehearsal for the revolution.” 1 How can we explain the success of Theatre of the Oppressed at a time when revolutionary horizons seem to have almost disappeared?
