“Theatre of the Oppressed”, is a method developed by Augusto Boal (shown on the left-hand corner), who encouraged his actors to portray a situation when one person is dominated by the monologue of another and has no chance to reply. This is a tool to express themselves and discover a way out of their powerlessness. In Invisible Theatre, the separation between the performer and the observer is removed. Moreover, in this system, the observer may not be aware that what they experience is a theatrical event. The aim of the performers is to disguise the theatrical reality as actual reality in order to provoke responses from those who witness the performance and to bring attention to a social problem for the purpose of stimulating public dialogue. To send a message across explicitly to the targeted audience, my partner and I decided that invisible theatre was appropriate to the theme of a social issue we have chosen that is quite familiar to many of the students in TCIS.
Discrimination against foreigners and Third Culture Kids was a topic that my partner and I have chosen, because we had a strong attachment to it and were confident to perform in public. During APAC Theatre Festival in Seoul, our home stay daughter took my roommate and myself to downtown with her friends. On our way to the bus stop, we came across to a group of men who seemed to have finished their dinner in the restaurant. They looked a bit drunk, but we didn’t care because it was a common scenery to encounter at night. As we passed by conversing to each other in English, a man from the group shouted, “If you are in Korea then speak the language. Hey you, speak Korean!” Our group looked at the man and was perplexed by the gibberish they were hearing, except my roommate and I who perfectly understood his words. Suppressing the words down to my throat, I looked at my roommate who was making the same facial expression I was making also. We were oppressed by the man’s words worrying the consequences that could happen if we were to talk back at him. Especially because we were Third Culture Kids and young students, we could’ve jeopardized ourselves for disrespecting them in public. After we got on the bus, I got so mad at myself for not speaking up for the group I was with. So I wanted to take this opportunity of Theatre of the Oppressed and share my anger at that time with the people, hoping for them to back up the situation and care about the issue that we are surrounded by everyday. So these were the points my partner and I wanted to send across through the performance: how some Koreans are reluctant to understand, how some Koreans mock other Third Culture People calling them a disgrace or a contamination to the country, how discrimination could bring huge effects on an individual, how we need to change our mindsets and defend the stance of Third Culture People and foreigners in this country.
In order to carry out this performance effectively, my partner and I had to come up with a brief script in both English and Korean, because our targeted audience members were Korean students outside of TCIS. Also, an English script was written for my teacher to understand the performance too. Also, some of the points we had to touch upon were written, so the objectives of the performance were to be accomplished, even though everything was going to be improvised. So this was our plot: we needed two or more antagonists to take place as Koreans who are not thoroughly exposed to western cultures. Then my partner and I would create a similar situation that had happened before. We would start an argument in the middle of the street where many people pass by, addressing some of the social issues we have listed above.
To be frank, I expected some interventions from the spect-actors because the situation was not unfamiliar at all especially to Koreans. Because Koreans are often exposed to these kinds problems associated with racism and discrimination, I believed that they would at least attempt to stop the argument or fight back against the antagonists, or support the antagonists to see the clear reaction to the situation. Because the purpose of Invisible Theatre was to create a tension to the point where it become undeniable for the onlookers, I believed that I have chosen the right spect-actors who would definitely willing to be part of it. However, my expectations digressed from the start with the antagonists. First my partner and I were planning on asking some of the Han Nam University students to participate as antagonists, so it would be more realistic than using student from our school. However, they later refused to be part of it because they were pressured by the topic we were going to present especially in front of their school. I thought they would definitely accept our proposal because they understand the social issues we are dealing with for this project. So, we reluctantly took another path and asked two male students from out grade who decently looked like Korean college students. Before the performance, our group went over the script and once again went through the plot so there would be no misunderstand among us during the performance. As our argument took place, the antagonist and I began to raise our voices. The antagonist blamed my foreign friend making racist comments about her, and I defended her by talking back how he shouldn’t discriminate people in front of an international school. I began to see some of the attention we were receiving. I saw a group of people in front of me, staring back and forth between the antagonist and my foreign friend. Although I haven’t seen many reactions because I was too focused on the argument, I did notice that a lot of people were passing by turning their heads fixed to our conflict in the middle of the street. A lady who works in our school suddenly came into the scene and tried to stop the argument; however, we were so perplexed to encounter a case where a school staff tried to be involved. We tried to quietly tell her that this was a theatrical performance while we were yelling at each other, and was later settled as she understood what we said to her. As time went by, I began to give up on expecting spect-actors to be involved, which was personally a great disappointment. According to Mrs. Z, the barista in the café considered our argument insignificant and told her that it would be fine. Although our group was quite serious about the topic, he treated the conflict as a small verbal disagreement that is quite common in that area. Also, a pair of female students just walked through the argument, giving a stare at my foreign friend. Although Mrs. Z told us that many people were interested in seeing our argument behind my back, my expectation to be similar with the situation that had occurred in Boal’s experiences was too high. However, I believe that the performance was a success in a way that we have incorporated many factors that Boal have used in his invisible theatre: taking place at an everyday location where many people are present and attempting use the covert performance of stimulated realities as a strategic response to a problematic situation or condition.
Definitely there were some improvements that could have been made if we were to do this again. I would make sure that all actors are ready before the performance, because it was a chaos when the college students declined our proposal. Also, I would at least had one rehearsal before, because some of the contexts were a bit inclined to one area and weren’t able to touch on some of the objectives we had planned to touch on. Other than these factors, I’m very content with the result. Also I’m glad that the reactions of the people were different from my expectation, because it was more interesting to observe and really acknowledge the gravity of the issue we are facing today.
(My friend and I, Rebecca Cole-Walker and Christina Lee- The producers of this original piece of Theatre as a political voice.)
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