Political Theatre and the Politics of Care in James Baldwin's Blues for Mister Charlie and Lynn Nottage's Sweat: An Application of Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Abstract

This paper examines the intersection of political theatre and the politics of care through James Baldwin’s Blues for Mister Charlie and Lynn Nottage’s Sweat, analysed within the framework of Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. It explores how both plays operate as performative expressions of Freirean praxis, staging the conflict between oppressors and the oppressed across racial and class-based hierarchies. Baldwin’s drama confronts systemic racism and calls for moral responsibility, while Nottage’s work critiques the instability of labour under neoliberalism and the erosion of worker solidarity. Central to both texts is a politics of care that positions theatre as a dialogic medium fostering empathy and critical consciousness. Through close textual analysis informed by Freirean concepts such as praxis and conscientization, this study demonstrates how theatre humanizes social conflict and encourages transformative awareness. By presenting the struggles of marginalized communities, Baldwin and Nottage invite audiences to reflect on their complicity in systems of oppression while envisioning possibilities for resistance and liberation. The analysis addresses three guiding questions: How does Baldwin’s play dramatize racialized power struggles through Freirean theory? In what ways are Freire’s concepts of praxis and critical consciousness enacted in both plays? How does a politics of care shape theatre as a dialogic space that cultivates empathy, audience participation, and potential social transformation?