Political Oppression in Harold Pinter's Drama: A Study in the Light of Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed

Abstract

The art of acting is a daily activity; people continue changing masks as they play different social roles; however, in a theatrical performance they become conscious of their acting roles. Therefore, acting can be a life changing experience; it has the ability to imitate different life experiences that have not necessarily been lived by the performer. This enriches the performer's awareness and enhances his or her critical thinking abilities. One thinks that the ultimate goal of performance is to liberate; one reconstructs the social, political, emotional and intellectual boundaries and forms suggested by society. Unlike conscious performance, people's daily performance is imprisoning; they try to play roles that satisfy the social norms, which differ from one society to another, of being normal, good, religious, sexy, etc. in an attempt to gain social acceptance. In the process of conforming to such social norms, one might become everything but oneself. In other words, daily unconscious performance that aims at satisfying the societal structure is enslaving while a conscious performance that targets reconstructing established ideas through utilizing critical thinking is liberating. With the emergence of dramatic texts, however, the liberating effect of performance that is closely related to improvisation has declined, and the limiting authority of censorship has increased. In daily life performances people fulfill the societal dramatic text rather than their improvisation; hence, they become gears in the machine of censorship; this results in creating more followers who sustain the cycle of conformity and less free thinkers. Whether to conform or not to conform to social norms is not the issue; the problematic question is whether one does this consciously or unconsciously. Therefore, conscious social practice is the key to liberation despite its alignment to or separation from social norms. Liberation is not merely the ability to reach awareness but also the ability to achieve the needed change. In a conscious performance one can utilize one's awareness; however, through improvisation one can create change. As previously mentioned in the present thesis, Pinter has stated in his Nobel lecture that politicians attain power by keeping people ignorant of truth; nonetheless, such unconscious practice of roles is the people's responsibility as explained by Braiker. Thus, conscious performance can be quite powerful. Since not everyone has the ability to practice conscious performance it is significant to bring it to the classroom. The dramatic text and theatrical performance duality in education is examined in the present thesis through a selection of Pinter's plays in the light of Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed.