Forum theater in participatory action-research: At the service of epistemological pluralism? Body, emotions, knowledge

Forum theater, invented in the 1970s by Augusto Boal in Brazil, is a radical approach to political theater offering neither answers nor questions. It aims to equip participants with the power to (self-)think, to (self-)talk, and to act. Based on a participatory action-research project carried out in South America on forest water services, this article explores the capacity of forum theater to reduce social and epistemic inequalities today. The text shows that this theatrical form has enabled researchers and NGO members to understand previously overlooked power relations, as well as to experience another form of knowledge where cognitive, physical, and emotional dimensions are connected. But this awareness was not part of a long-term collective transformation and may even have contributed—sometimes—to effects that went against the original intention (withdrawal into groups of belonging and their knowledge).