Invisible theater

Invisible theater or "hidden theater ' was developed in the resistance against fascism of communist theater groups in the 1930s and discovered by Augusto Boal in the 1960s for the situation of the Brazilian military dictatorship again. It is a political or artistic form of action, in which it comes, do not perform plays on a stage, but without the knowledge of the audience in public places. The Invisible Theatre is one of the methods of the theater of the oppressed and is a popular form of street theater.

But there are also forms of " invisible theater ", which only serve to uncertainty among the public and have provocative character and are among the methods of communication guerrillas. The "hidden theater " is also associated with Dario Fo in conjunction, because some of his pieces very suitable for this form of theater and he was involved himself in such actions.

Characteristics

In the invisible theater, there is no stage. Any scene can be on a stage. The viewers do not know that they are spectators and a theater that is played, they experience the events (initially) as a normal everyday situation. But the "real" actors know about, the audience will however be included as actors in the piece - without their knowledge. Likewise, the actors are to viewers who watch the actions of the actual audience. In this way, spectators and performers act equally. Nevertheless, there is a written text. The conflict is clear from the outset, must also be planned to the last detail, not only in terms of the scene and the participants; the possible reactions of the audience must be anticipated and planned, so that the actors are as well prepared as possible and able to continue the play quickly and authentic. As a venue public places with many people be chosen to secure the necessary public generally. The purpose of this theater is to draw not chaos, but the view of certain goals.

The invisible theater is in the sense subversive, as it represents existing social structures and habits in question. The objective is usually politically motivated or socially critical, in the original form of Boal as a face, but still visible expression of protest.

An example clarifies the purpose of the Invisible Theatre: It's opening night of an event, a thin man with torn clothing goes sad past the elegant ladies and gentlemen and looks at her. Other actors are inconspicuous here. While the mass consists then in motion to take their seats, breaking the lean man together. This is done in slow motion to draw the attention of everyone: only he mimes discomfort, stop looking at the wall, asking for help and then sinks to the bottom. Perhaps some people rush to help him. After a " doctor " has surfaced, the other actors talk about misery reports in the newspapers and on famine in Africa. Subsequently, the physician 's diagnosis: a faint, because the man had probably not eaten for days. Then ask some actors visitors to make their tickets available to to buy the man some food. You count on what you could buy anything for a ticket to food: how much meat, salad, eggs, etc. The goal that every viewer converts the price of its Premiere card in meat, salad, eggs, etc., and each individual is asked whether it was really necessary to spend his money on getting the same arias, instead of this to donate for poorer families. Then, according to calculated how much you can buy from any food. While not all visitors to donate something, but they are exposed before all, and was probably induced to think.