El arco iris del deseo (Artes escénicas)

by Augusto Boal, Jorge Cabezas (Translator)

El arco iris del deseo, un título que presentamos en versión revisada por Augusto Boal, abre una nueva etapa de investigación en la trayectoria de su Teatro del Oprimido, se trata del teatro al servicio de la liberación personal.
Partiendo de sus conocidas técnicas teatrales desarrolladas a lo largo de más de cincuenta años contra la opresión social y política -en las que el espectador se torna espect-actor pudiendo incidir en la propia escena-, Augusto Boal logra canalizar la energía transformadora de la representación teatral hacia la psicología.


El autor parte de la hipótesis de que la opresión –o “poli”, como él mismo lo expresa-, en muchas ocasiones, se encuentra principalmente en la cabeza de cada individuo, a pesar de que los verdaderos cuarteles de represión policial estén afuera.
El arco iris del deseo presenta una parte teórica, donde Boal explica su experiencia de trabajo en talleres teatrales y centros clínicos y otra parte eminentemente práctica donde, mediante la exposición y ejemplos de técnicas prospectivas, introspectivas y de extraversión, el lector encuentra los ejercicios que le permiten enfrentar sus propios miedos y prejuicios internos causantes en muchos casos de las opresiones más esquivas a un primer análisis –como pueden ser la soledad, el miedo al vacío, la incapacidad para comunicarse, por citar algunas- pero no por ello menos lastrantes.
Las técnicas que propone Boal resultan, según su propia experiencia, una forma eficaz de liberar al actor. Con El arco iris del deseo, Augusto Boal abre la puerta a una valiosísima propuesta de investigación capaz de conectar la representación teatral y la psicología.

Augusto Boal (Río de Janeiro, 1931-2009), estudió en la «School of Dramatic Arts» de la Universidad de Columbia, en Estados Unidos. Además de director y pedagogo, es autor de varios libros sobre técnica teatral, basados en su propia experiencia, entre los que destacan Teatro del oprimido, germen de sus trabajos posteriores contra la opresión, y Juegos para actores y no actores, ambos publicados en Alba.
Su obra ha sido traducida a más de veinticinco idiomas Dirigió durante años un centro de Teatro del Oprimido en París y otro en Río de Janeiro.

Augusto Boal ha sido premiado, entre otras instituciones, por la UNESCO, las Universidades de Nebraska, Göteborg, el Instituto de Teatro de Puebla (México), L´Institut de Teatre de Barcelona y, recientemente, ha sido nombrado Doctor Honoris Causa de la Universidad Queen Mary de Londres.

Genres: Theatre, Nonfiction, Psychology, Art, Drama

276 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 15, 1994

About the author

Augusto Boal was a Brazilian theatre director, writer and politician. He was the founder of Theatre of the Oppressed, a theatrical form originally used in radical popular education movements.

His books are very influential. With 22 published works, translated to more than 20 languages, his views are studied in Theatre schools all over the world.

Reviews

[Kyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like much of his other, inspirational drama guidebooks, Aesthetics and Theater of the Oppressed, Boal has a warm, humanist approach to what he does, as well as an effective method of getting other people to go to similar places. Here, however, he gives his readers (maybe just me in particular) too much of the whole spectrum for his vision, and it was way too frequent that I’d be blinded by some personal story or allusion, missing the point of any given activity. I am much more at ease with Boal in small doses.

[Joseph · Rating 2 out of 5]

For the most part, Boal is your typical anarcho-optimist, a conservative by virtue of the Utopian tautology underlying his supposedly decentralized artistic system. He employs, when needed, a dash of Freud, some Stanislavski and Lope de Vega, a two-dimensional Aristotle and a primarily iconographic Marx, cutting and pasting, organizing to his purposes a frightening monument built "in the hope that after the carnivalesque paroxysms of theatre will come once again the Ash Wednesday of a new day's work." Though fairly well organized, the argument far too often employs the shallow seductions of hokey linguistic devices as conclusions, a prime example being "the image of the real is real as image." Though charming in its anecdotes I fear it useful only to actors for its delineation of the games or techniques that Boal associates with his Theater of the Oppressed.

[Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The original title for this book was supposed to be Cop in the Head but Boal's publisher said, "No one will buy a book called 'Cop in the Head.' You have to call it 'Rainbow of Desire.'" I fault it one star short of five because actually enacting the techniques described in this book are far more vital than the book itself, (and I'm just saying that because facilitating Theatre of the Oppressed workshops is what I do for work these days).

[Barry · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was recommended this by a friend when talking about service design and facilitation and understanding often hidden meaning in what people want and desire and unlocking that. As a book for use in my professional life there are little things I will use, but general applicability is going to be a little limited. That's not necessarily a book problem but more a reflection on how useful this will be to me. That said, there are a range of techniques in here for helping people see things from different perspectives and that's certainly useful.

Boal's influences are interesting. He is a theatre director, a Marxist, and influenced by Paolo Friere's 'Pedagogy of the Oppressed' has created a 'Theatre of the Oppressed' and posits through shared improvisation, and involvement of audiences (spect-actors) theatre can be an effective form of therapy for the oppressed, to unlock what they really desire, think or find ways forward to problems.

It's certainly innovative and the book has a mixture of theory (which I did find fascinating, and in some ways will influence my creative writing) and the exercises with examples in practice. It's quite a readable book but I found many of the exercises quite repetitious or I wasn't clear what was really being asked. It's also notable that in the practice examples the subjects often broke the rules of the exercises which shows how influential the actors are as a means of working through things and also that the rules are guidelines at best.

I did really enjoy reading the practice examples of the different exercises and methods in action and I think I would value seeing them in person, or a video to truly get my head around them.

There are some limitations. The power of the Director is never sufficiently addressed, and whilst there is an assumption that the Director guides, in some of the text they are provocateurs, in others they are not. When dealing with oppression and power dynamics, especially as a form of therapy I don't think this book remotely addresses this challenge, and the influence the Director has.

Also, I think it would take a skilled facilitator and for those supporting this activity to be either skilled in drama and facilitation and also co-design. A lot of groups would need a lot of work to get to a point where they would be in a trusting and safe place to undertake these techniques. I personally don't feel they are safe in unskilled hands (like mine).

Interesting, for sure. Thought provoking, definitely. Usability - not really.

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adrian Jackson brilliantly translates Boal's complex, philosophical masterpiece on theatre, personage, and oppression. Boal relies heavily on devised words (like spect-actor), connotations, and metaphor, and Jackson captures these for the English speaking reader. Boal's book is more than just an explanation of the techniques of image theatre [especially Rainbow of Desire and The Cop in the Head, my personal two favorites]. The first third sets the beautiful foundation of humanity's interactions with and observations of self since the birth of consciousness, which is the basis for the creation of this new type of theatre, the Theatre of the Oppressed.

[Marijana Peršić]

"Solidarity means running the same risk!" Che