Hamlet and the Baker's Son: My Life in Theatre and Politics

378 Pages·2001·22.791 MB·English

by  Augusto Boal

Hamlet and the Baker's Son
He is credited as the inventor of the internationally renowned Forum
Theatre system, and'Theatre ofthe Oppressed'. He continues to travel
theworldgivingworkshopsand inspirationto teachers,prisoners,actors
and workers in a myriad other fields.Augusto Boal isa visionary aswell
as aproductofhis times- the Brazil ofmilitarydictatorship and artistic
and socialrepression.
But this political man of the theatre, and very theatrical man of
politics - once imprisoned for his subversive activities - is also a
passionately creative force in contemporary cultural life.
From his childhood and early days in Brazil's political theatre move
ment to his more recent experiments with Forum Theatre as a
democratic political process, Boal's story is a moving and memorable
one. He has devised a unique way of using the stage to empower the
disempowered, and taken his methods everywhere from the favelas of
Rio to the rehearsal studios ofthe Royal Shakespeare Company.
A distinctive warmth and humour fills these pages, demonstrating
Boal'scommitmentto his personal/political slogan,
''HHaavveetthhee ccoouurraaggee ttoobe hhaappppyy,.''
AUGUSTO BOAl
Hamlet an the Baker's Son
My Life In Theatre and Pollllcs
TranslatedhIAdrianJackson andCandida Blaker
LONDON andNEWYORK
Firstpublished2001byRoutledge
2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,axon,OX144RN
SimultaneouslypublishedintheUSAandCanadabyRoutledge
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©2001AugustoBoal
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BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
Baal,Augusto.
[Hamlete0 filhodopadeiro.English]
Hamletandthebaker'sson:mylifeinthetheatreandpoliticsIAugustoBoal
p.em
Includesindex.
1.Boal,Augusto.2.Theatricalproducersanddirectors-Brazil-Biography.3.
Dramatists,Brazilian-20thcentury-Biography.I.Title
PN2474.B63A32001
792'.0233'092-dc21
[B]
00-062746
ISBN0--415-22989-8(pbk) ISBNo-415-22988-X(hbk)
contents
t
S
a
"c':
S
Ci'
=:I
The translators vn
Thetranslators
Preface: awoman Inthe mirror lx
Preface:awomaninthe mirror ix
Introduction xi
Introduction xi
Thelandscape, the family 1
The landscape, the family 1
Along time ago, Iwasaboy 29
Alongtime ago, Iwas aboy 29
Inthearena ofArena 140
Inthe arenaofArena 140
War declared, insideand outside ofme 231
Wardeclared, inside andoutside ofme 231
Exile, banishment,palmtrees, birdsong 315
Exile,banishment, palm trees, birdsong 315
The impossiblereturn and the strangeness ofthe familiar 326
The impossiblereturnandthe strangeness ofthe familiar 326
!N\Iootteess 335511
ustofillustrations365
Listofinustrations365
the translators
Adrian Jackson is Artistic Director of Cardboard Citizens, a leading
proponent ofForumTheatre in the UK. He hastranslated four booksby
Augusto Boal, collaborated on anumber of occasionsand taughtTheatre
of the Oppressed widely in the other countries, including Namibia,
SouthAfrica,Hong Kong, Mauritiusand Finland. He hasmade theatrein
and with a broad range of communities, as well as with trained actors.
Candida Blakerhaslived and worked in Brazil.Sheisaninternational
socialdevelopmentconsultant and isincreasinglyinvolved intheartsand
culturalsector.
preface:
a woman i the mirror
She was in the dressing room, crying.
Why?The show was over.
Success.And Marywas crying.
She was a housemaid.The cast, that evening, was entirely made up
ofhousemaids, all Marys.Their group was participating in a Festival of
Theatre ofthe Oppressed, November 1999.Allthegroupshad told me:
'We do theatre in our communities, in streets, in open spaces:now we
want to do theatre inside areal theatre.' Isaid:'Whynot?'
We hired theTeatro Gloria for a weekend. All our groups came to
play,one after another, to enjoythe ritualsofthe theatre: the spectators
buying their tickets, the curtain going up, the applause, the curtain
call .. . Oh, how they loved it! How different it was from the public
parksand thestreet,wheredogs bark,and drunkardsexercisetheir right
to speak, everyone is on the move, in transit . .. Here everyone was
so educated, so well behaved!
Marywas crying.'Why,Mary, why are you crying?'
'I am ahousemaid. Housemaids mustbe invisible: that's essential to
ourprofession.Thefood mustbe cooked,meals mustappearonthe table,
the dishes mustbe washed, thehousecleaned, the childrenpreparedfor
schoolin themorning . ..who doesit?No one: the invisible housemaid.
If,whileservingatthetable,IhearaconversationaboutsomethingIhave
an opinion on, I must shut up: besides being invisible, I must be mute.
And deaf: Ineverhear my employerstalking.
'This afternoon, when we were rehearsing, a man came to me and
+
showed me where I should stand or move, for the lights to illuminate
mebetter,sothatIwouldbeseenbyallthespectators;anotherman hung
...
Q)
a small microphone on my dress to make my voice be heard through
~
E!
a. out the theatre. For the first time in my life, people were busy making
me visible, making me audible. In the evening, wonder of wonders:
the family I work for were all there, seeing my body, listening to my
voice, understanding my thoughts, my feelings.They were there in the
audience, they were silent .. .in the dark.'
'You shouldbe happy:why are you crying?'
'I criedwhen1cameto the dessingroomand lookedat myselfinthe
mirror:1sawawoman.Forthefirst timeinmylife,1sawawomaninthe
. ,
mIrror ...
'Whatdid you seebefore?'
'Before,lookingatthemirror,1used to see ...ahousemaid.Tonight,
1saw awoman. Iam awoman!'
* .. *
This is the theatre I believe in: the place where we can stand and see
ourselves. Notseewhatothers tell usweare, or shouldbe- butseeour
deepestselves!
Theatre isthe place where we can look at ourselves and say:'I am a
man, 1am awoman:Iam me!'
Chekhov's 'ThreeSisters'
Hamiel
And the Baker's Son!
introduction
I
Did
What
ICould!
That's my nature! Closing statements!
Choice and Chancel
Augusto Boal's autobiography
Ithink growing old is wonderful. One becomes more intelligent, more
experienced,wiser.The only disagreeable thing aboutageing isthat it is
irreversible.
* .. *
Every text one writes is autobiographical: anything else would be
plagiarism.
The beginning of the conversation
In a psychiatric hospital in Rio de Janeiro, where the patients were
working, playing, painting, sculpting, and were - in their own way
happy, a reporter interviewed an inmate, one of the so-called 'raving
mad'. In an exhibition which had recently opened, the man had dazzled
criticsand publicalike withhisfantasticsculptures.Thereporterasked if
til it was difficult to sculpt.
'It'seasy; anyonecan do it. It's justamatterofkeepingcalm - thatis
the key to it:keeping very calm!When you are calm you can do every
c:
.!2 thing better.'
U
'"
"" 'Calm, Ican understand.What do you mean by doing things better?'
E
]5
'It's like this; you get a nice large piece ofstone.Then, think of a
person, think hard, you need to see that person in your imagination,
whole, with your eyesclosed, not in the way the whole world sees, but
in the way that only you can see, because you are the sculptor, notany
one else. Sculpture is not about doing a portrait - portraiture is what
cameras are for.You are an artist. So, thinking about someone, seeing
them,you pickup thehammerand chisel,and thenyouremovefromthe
stone everything that isnot that person.Which isto say:you chuck out
the rest, and leave in the stone only the person!'
Itiseasyto be asculptoror anartist: itisjustamatterofbeingmad!
Starkraving.
It iseasy to be mad:it isjustamatterofbeingan artist.
* .. *
'Why don't you write your autobiography?' - asked Talia Rodgers. I
was nonplussed, thinking about that person:me.Would it be worth the
trouble to sculpt my biography? To draw out coherences from the
impure and excessive stone ofmy life, to mould the profile ofthe man,
evenpresumingthetrajectorymadesomesense?Tochuckout'therest',
and describewhat Ifeel today, whatIthink Ithink, whatIthink Iam, or
have been?
Biographies smack of the end, of final utterances. Mission accom-