From the Theatre-in-the-Round to the Theatre of the Oppressed—A Process of Forming Interaction

Abstract

The techniques of the theatre are the techniques of communication (Spolin in Improvisation for the theater. Northwestern University Press, Illinois, 1999, p. 14). The present paper scrutinizes and explores the process of this phenomenon in theatre in its broad meaning. The author of the article looks at the way interaction and expression, the two key elements in expanding one’s self-awareness, become part of the spectator‘s experience. The revolutionary introduction of the round stage by Stephen Joseph, which later became a source of inspiration for Alan Ayckbourn’s staging ventures, facilitates the interaction with the viewer. Bertolt Brecht trains the audience in critical thinking, Grotowski, on the other hand, strips his theatre of the staging and props, and in this way places the focus on the actor, who becomes the medium of communication. Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed is directly rooted in practice and active involvement of the spectators, who become “spectactors” in the process.