The Theatre of the Oppressed is theatre in this most archaic application of the word. In this usage, all human beings are Actors (they act!) and Spectators (they observe!).
Interpretation
Theatre serves as a powerful medium for both expression and observation of the human experience.
Augusto Boal's quote emphasizes that theatre is not just a performance but a profound reflection of human existence. In this context, every person plays a role, either as an actor engaging in life or as a spectator observing it. This duality highlights the interconnectedness of human experiences and the importance of both participation and reflection in understanding our world.
In practice
In a workshop on social change, one might use this quote to discuss how everyone plays a role in societal issues.
Theatre has nothing to do with buildings or other physical constructions. Theatre - or theatricality - is the capacity, this human property which allows man to observe himself in action, in activity. Man can see himself in the act of seeing, in the act of acting, in the act of feeling, the act of thinking. Feel himself feeling, think himself thinking.
The theater is a weapon, and it is the people who should wield it.
The beauty of doing film is that you construct whatever you do block by block and you can build something that will stay.
Recently I have been working in the country, where, carving in the open air, I find sculpture more natural than in a London studio, but it needs bigger dimensions. A large piece of stone or wood placed almost anywhere at random in a field, orchard, or garden, immediately looks right and inspiring.
The great work must inevitably be obscure, except to the very few, to those who like the author himself are initiated into the mysteries. Communication then is secondary: it is perpetuation which is important. For this only one good reader is necessary.
For me, the original play becomes an historical document: This is where I was when I wrote it, and I have to move on now to something else.
I believe that one of the secret engines that allows cinema to work, and have the marvelous power over us that it does, is the fact that for thousands of years we have spent eight hours every night in a 'cinematic' dream-state, and so are familiar with this version of reality.
All movies assault the viewer in one way or another.
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