Between popular traditions and forum theatre: Playing on the borders of Theatre of the Oppressed

This article focuses on a devising process linking forum theatre and a Brazilian popular tradition called Boi de Mamão, a mix of music, dance and theatre that has the death and resurrection of the bull as its main theme. Connecting a popular tradition and forum theatre means that we are working on the border between these two forms: the Boi de Mamão, with its characters that are constructed in dialogue with everyday life, with imagination; and forum theatre, which seeks to discuss complex issues related to oppression. Within this contact, the two grow up, allowing us to escape from the constraints that limit both practices: the abandonment of improvisation, the loss of dialogue with everyday life and the limits of imagination. Research on the role of the Joker, who tries to mediate the oppression of the characters without losing sight of the world of the popular tradition, was developed through theoretical and practical proposals for ‘fooling with the joker’.