This is not theater… this is a crime
Unfortunately, Rio de Janeiro has gained national and international notoriety due to the unscrupulous actions of audacious criminals, who use various forms of knowledge, technologies, and beliefs in the service of organized crime. Beyond the explicit violence that spreads fear and allows territorial control, the illegal access to personal and banking data, manipulation of information, and the dissemination of lies enable a series of frauds against citizens. The collaboration between criminals and public officials, as was made evident in the murder of Marielle Franco and Anderson Gomes, ensures impunity, hinders investigations, challenges justice, and now also threatens democracy.
Since 2016, during electoral campaign periods, a vile attack on democracy has been taking place in Rio de Janeiro: a criminal group spreads lies about candidates through the staging of false situations at bus stops and crowded places, aiming to manipulate electoral outcomes. These groups arrive at predetermined locations and, in an unassuming manner, start spouting absurdities about the individuals they wish to defame. This way, they plant the seed of lies, later spreading them until a concrete doubt is established, which eventually takes on the appearance of “truth” through repetition. Only after eight years of this criminal activity, in the 2024 electoral campaign, have we become aware of yet another assault on democracy.
This group of criminals manipulates by labeling their criminal activity as invisible theater. The Federal Police makes a mistake by adopting the label given by the offenders as the official title of their investigation. “The investigations revealed that the criminal organization, through its leaders—who have even held public office in various cities of RJ—developed a sophisticated and profitable scheme based on hiring individuals with the goal of influencing the electoral process in several municipalities,” stated the Federal Police.
In reality, Invisible Theater has no connection to fraud or deceit. It is one of the techniques of the Theater of the Oppressed, a method systematized by playwright Augusto Boal (1931-2009). Created in Brazil in the 1970s, this method is now practiced in various languages and in different social, economic, and cultural contexts, from Canada to Argentina’s Patagonia, from South Africa to Denmark, from Greece to Australia, in more than a hundred countries across five continents.
The goal of Invisible Theater is to bring a topic into public discussion through an open question, never arriving with a definitive truth or answer. On the contrary, the idea is to create an environment where different perspectives can be introduced and debated horizontally, without establishing an absolute truth. The aim is to give visibility to issues that need to be discussed by society. Invisible Theater, like other techniques of the Theater of the Oppressed, focuses on creating environments for dialogue, encouraging the exchange of ideas, and fostering moments of collective reflection.
Augusto Boal often said that we, as human beings, have the best and worst within us, and we need to be educated, stimulated, and encouraged to develop our best. For this reason, he was an artist who put his art in the service of citizenship. We cannot allow criminals to distort the meaning of this art. Deceiving people to influence an electoral outcome is not theater. It is a crime.
What’s happening in Rio today is a complete misrepresentation of Boal’s work. Invisible Theatre was never meant to deceive or manipulate. Criminals are hijacking the name of this technique to create doubt and confusion, and we must resist and fight for its true meaning.
The Theatre of the Oppressed Centre in Rio has issued a strong statement condemning this misuse, and we stand in solidarity with them, calling on artists and academics to protect the true spirit of this method.
If you want to learn more about the true purpose of Invisible Theatre, we invite you to join our upcoming workshop in March 26th to 29th facilitated by Till Baumann for German speakers.
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