About the Book:

Hamlet and the Baker's Son is the autobiography of Augusto Boal, an influential figure in world theatre. He developed a set of techniques that he called the Theatre of the Oppressed, which made the dramatic arts available to the poor as a tool for social change, engaging and empowering audiences and artists alike, in a variety of settings.

Augusto Boal was a visionary theatre director and dramatist 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. His unique theories about the power of drama to change society and transform lives attracted followers in many countries, and social activists mention him in the same breath as Brecht and Stanislavski.

From his early days in Brazil's political theatre movement to his experiments with theatre as a democratic political process, the story of Augusto Boal is a moving and memorable one. He devised a unique theatre movement, the Theatre of the Oppressed, using the stage to empower victims of oppression, and spread his theatrical movement across the world from the favelas of Rio to the rehearsal studios of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

A distinctive warmth and humour fill these pages. As a member of the Rio de Janeiro city council, Augusto Boal had an electioneering slogan that acts now as instruction to change whatever we can change for the better: "Have the courage to be happy!"

What people say:

"This readable autobiography ... is an interesting story of an extraordinary life and will no doubt inspire practitioners and students of theatre." — Research in Drama Education

"Hamlet and the Baker's Son is written with a spirit of generosity and sincere affection for Brazil and its theatre. The intense vitality and shrewd accuracy of observation of the human condition that are Boal's trademarks shine through and reward the reader with a deeper understanding of one of the most influential theatre innovators of our time ... an engaging tale that swerves away from the stated purpose of theatrical history on enough occasions to keep the book from becoming dry and didactic." — Theatre Journal

"Boal is the inventive stage director who owns the area of contemporary theater devoted to political activism.... In this autobiography, he reveals the origins and development of his vision. He is a perfect observer who sees everything as comic/sad/ridiculous/tragic all at the same time, with the notable exception of imprisonment and torture, which for him were formative life experiences. His self-deprecating style is most accessible. For him, not only is all politics local, so is all theater." — Library Journal

About the Author:

Augusto Boal (1931-2009) was a Brazilian theatre director, theorist, writer, teacher, social activist, and politician. He was born and grew up in Rio de Janeiro and trained as an industrial chemist, first graduating in 1952 and then researching at New York's Columbia University. Fascinated by theatre, he spent his time in the United States studying drama as well as chemical engineering. He was the founder of Theatre of the Oppressed, a theatrical form originally used in radical popular education movements.