Can Theatre be a Project of Liberation Theology?: Explorations in the Case of a Collaboration in Tanzania

Abstract

In the summer of 2011, a contingent of graduate students and faculty sourced from Yale University’s Divinity School, School of Drama, and Institute of Sacred Music partnered with the Parapanda Theatre Arts Lab in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Building on the work of Augusto Boal, Parapanda has pioneered using participatory theatre as a means for social change. Their process creates provocative, non-traditional drama that attempts to give voice to instances of social injustice. Yale students joined Parapanda artists for an unprecedented international exchange exploring this unique possibility of theatre-making. An essential component of the Yale/Parapanda experiment tried to bring theatre for social change into conversation with liberation theology. Traditional coursework in Christian and Islamic liberation theologies intermingled with rehearsals and performances, but neither the final performances nor inter-company conversation extensively engaged religious questions. The failure to launch productive religious discourse as a part of the Yale/Parapanda experiment seems to name any theoretical connection “merely cosmetic.” In this paper, I will argue that the resonance between a theology of the oppressed and a theatre of the oppressed go deeper than surface-level similarities. Indeed, the Yale/Parapanda experiment reveals a symbiotic relationship between these disciplines even though discussing religious topics remained elusive and its final performances did not integrate religious content. I will show how participatory theatre reflects the methodology of liberation theology in action and that liberation theology provides a guide for theatre that seeks to combat oppression. In the spirit of liberation theology’s attention to contextual analysis, I will begin with Parapanda’s theatrical process and examples from the Yale/Parapanda experiment. I will then develop a brief theological account for what I believe to be one of the key principles for the success of theatre for social change—the creation of “spaces of freedom.” On these grounds, I will suggest a way to see how participatory theatre for social change, in its historical and dramatic activity, does liberation theology.