A Study of Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed in the Street Plays of Safdar Hashmi's Halla Bol and Machine

This paper deeply analyze the subaltern perspective in the street plays of Safdar Hashmi’s Halla Bol and Machine with the device of Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed. Theatre of the Oppressed invites critical thinking by arousing the critical consciousness of the spectator after being deeply triggered by the landmark treatise of Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. The first chapter introduces Street Theatre in detail and briefly throws light on Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed theory and Street Theatre as a tool for political communication and brings out the idea of two plays in brief. The second chapter deals with Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed in the plays Halla Bol and Machine by looking at the aspects like Facilitator, Spect-actor, Properties, costumes and themes. It throws light on how a spectator is changed from a passive listener to an active participant. To sum up, I would like to propose that the street theatre of Hashmi turned out to be the voice of the voiceless among the oppressed community