03/04/17
South America produced many significant politically oriented theatre artists in the twentieth century. One of the most renowned is the Brazilian playwright, director, and theorist Augusto Boal. Boal has written many plays, including Lean Wife, Mean Husband (1957); Revolution in South America (1961); and Joe, From the Womb to the Tomb (1962). In the 1960’s Boal created works about historical figures, theatrical and revolutionary. Because in his Marxist point of view, this Brazilian theatre artist was forces into exile, traveling throughout South America and other parts of the world.
In exile, Boal experimented with different types of theatre. He crated a documentary-like drama that focused on current political issues and an enviormental style of theatre that presented performances in public spaces to surprised audiences. Boal became internationally known for his theoretical work Theatre of the Opressed (1975) wich became a manifesto for revolutionary and socially conscious theatre. Boal continued teaching, working and reading until his death. Augusto Boal died on 2 May 2009 at the age of 78 in Rio de Janeiro. Critic Yan Michalski argues that Augusto Boal is the best-known and most respected Brazilian theatre practitioner abroad.
