Comments on: 2009 World Theatre Day Message – Augusto Boal

By: adrian jackson

adrian jackson — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 10:09:00 +0000

I think poor professor yorick rather misses the point(s). Metaphor and analogy are fairly commonly recognised oratorical tools. Boal’s theatre is one of the few that actually seeks to intervene in the fact that children die needlessly. It is one of the rather less egotistical branches of theatre in the world; (‘effete’ is an interesting word for the ‘professor’ to have used here…do we detect some issues?).
Maybe the professor should read Boal a little more widely before leaping to these conclusions….

By: pagno

pagno — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 18:47:00 +0000

wow! bang on boal. thanks for posting that. great words!

theatre is a way of life. you either see it or you don't.

mike, i read that article by kelly. i love it. i totally agree with him. "We don't need to celebrate theatre; theatre is celebration."

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:28:00 +0000

I think both arguments are very true.

"Theatre" will always be with us. The box office & proscenium? Maybe not.

By: Michael Wheeler

Michael Wheeler — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 20:20:00 +0000

I spent the weekend at a wedding and I have to say the experience left me firmly onside with Boal:

I watched estranged relatives overcome decades of animosity through a slow dance of good intentions, the best man and maid of honour sign documents to music in a ritualized ceremony,and at one point some uncouth teenaged girls from a hotel room with a balcony overlooking the ceremony even brought out a big bag of Cheetos to watch the performance from above. There is a lot of theatre in our lives.

On the other hand, I thought Kelly Nestruck presented an extremely interesting and critique of World Theatre Day as a concept on The Guardian theatre blog in his piece, Who cares about World Theatre Day?

I'd love to hear what people think about this argument if anyone's still paying attention to this thread.

By: ben

ben — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 12:46:00 +0000

My dear professor, theatre is a success with every intention to speak. Forego the intention to communicate with your fellow man, and one could have all the food/money/power in the world, but it would not be life. That word, dear sir, means, is, and defines affinity with one’s fellows, and all the rest, including life and death (both as equally inevitable) …. are but props and set for the drama that is communication. Augusto Boal is just a person. It took your response to turn it into theatre.

By: Professor Yorick

Professor Yorick — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 02:50:00 +0000

Indeed sir, however the spectacle of your career long self-inflation through platitude, like most theatrical spectacle available, is simply mundane to us, the unwashed. Life is not theatre, because children actually do die of something pointless, not some nobel, tragic, well-lit dramatic invention. Theatre is not life because nothing the theatre does matters to the hungry and the cold. With respect, Mr. Boal’s effete and egotistical musings are nothing more than a finely wrought example of how the theatre has failed humanity.