Hamlet and the Baker's Son

<p><em>Hamlet and the Baker's Son</em> is the autobiography of Augusto Boal, inventor of the internationally renowned Forum Theatre system, and 'Theatre of the Oppressed' and author of <em>Games for Actors and Non-Actors</em> and <em>Legislative Theatre</em>. Continuing to travel the world giving workshops and inspiration to teachers, prisoners, actors and care-workers, Augusto Boal is a visionary as well as a product of his times - the Brazil of military dictatorship and artistic and social repression and was once imprisoned for his subversive activities.<br> From his early days in Brazil's political theatre movement to his recent experiments with theatre as a democratic political process, Boal's story is a moving and memorable one. He has devised a unique way of using the stage to empower the disempowered, and taken his methods everywhere from the favelas of Rio to the rehearsal studios of the Royal Shakespeare Company.</p> The translators, Preface: a woman In the mirror, Introduction, The landscape, the family, A long time ago, I was a boy, In the arena of Arena, War declared, inside and outside of me, Exile, banishment, palm trees, birdsong, The impossible return and the strangeness of the familiar, Notes, List of illustrations