Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) is a school of theatre first conceptualised by Brazilian theorist & theatre practitioner Augusto Boal. In TO, the oppressed speak, act and express their social will. Jana Sanskriti’s theatre teams reach out to thousands of people every month, with aesthetically refined theatre and hard-hitting questions on the reality around us. Jana Sanskriti’s theatre does not offer any solutions – the attempt is to arrive at a solution is made with the help of the spect-actors (spectators who intervene during forum sessions)

In India, Jana Sanskriti is the only exponent of Forum Theatre in which members of the theatre team select, construct, and narrate a social problem from their daily life. With artistic direction this play is taken to an audience who must now find a solution to the problem. Passive spectators then become engaged spect-actors. Spect-actors come on stage to enact the solutions they have thought of, debating with trained activists about the feasibility of the solutions suggested. Thus individuals publicly engage in tackling a problem that has thus far provoked the most profound cultural silence and acceptance. This exercise gradually suggests possibilities for liberation from that oppression in real life. Over the years we have seen that the experience of ‘spect-acting’ has motivated people to be active outside theatre as well.

In Image Theatre actors and spect-actors recreate images of their own reality – through consensus. They look at their reality in an objective manner, try to understand and analyse it. This is called the real image. Spect-actors then proceed to make the image of a situation that they desire – the ideal image - in which the oppression will have disappeared. We then return to the real image and debate begins. Each spect-actor must then show images of different stages in the possible transition from real to ideal. This entire experience becomes a rehearsal of how to deal with oppression in real life.IntrospectiveTheatre affords an individual the scope of being her own spectator. As a spectator she introspects, analyses and understands the reason for every small experience of oppression in her life. She discovers the talent within herself – this gives her confidence. She recognizes how various social values are guiding her actions.