Disney’s popular 1990s “Ducktales” cartoon drew some inspiration from Brazilian Augusto Boal’s “The Misadventures of Uncle McBuck,” with the rich Scrooge McDuck and his prized “Number One Dime.”

Boal’s original story does not have Scrooge McDuck’s cartoonish swims through gold coins or Huey, Dewey and Louie’s antics, but it does contain political intrigue with modern-day humor even a current audience would enjoy.

Tonight, the University is bringing audiences the first English-language adaptation of Boal’s work.

Published in 1968, Boal’s political satire shows off his trademark techniques called the “Theatre of the Oppressed.”

Director George Contini, associate professor of theater studies, used Boal’s “Theatre of the Oppressed” to help teach acting methods but was unfamiliar with Boal’s plays until Robert Moser, assistant professor of romance languages, brought them to his attention.

“What struck him was that (the plays) could have been written today – with the current war situation today,” Contini said.

Moser translated the play from Portugese specifically for the University production, and the basic plot has three stories that intertwine.

Uncle McBuck is a wealthy American capitalist but constantly yearns for more. He owns everything but gets the idea to find another country to begin taking over.

In the underdeveloped country he finds, there is a group of students trying to start a revolution against the oppression they live with. McBuck convinces the government to bring in American superheroes to help fight a “good” battle, but they end up doing more damage instead.

Contini brought in some help to teach the improvisational methods that Boal used to portray the balance of the humor and serious political undertones.

“It’s interesting trying to balance the particular message and keep it crazy and fun,” Contini said. “We do crazy stuff – go from a beauty pageant, to the Last Supper, to ‘yo mamma’ jokes.”

Amy Roeder, a graduate student at the University, and Amy Wisehunt, a December graduate in theater and women’s studies, both helped with different aspects of the production.

Wisehunt is interested in a career being a dramaturg, which is an assistant to the production who often researches history and finds new information for the play.

“My job with this play was split between informing the actors of the script’s pop culture references and jokes, as well as where the play came from,” she said.

Roeder, a master of fine arts student, served as the production’s assistant director and focused on teaching the actors about the three aspects of “Theatre of the Oppressed”: Invisible Theatre (audience does not know there is a performance), Image Theatre (using physical images to show ideas) and Forum Theatre (audience helps decide actions in the play).

“We went to various places and looked at various situations of oppression, and we tried to address and deal with them,” Roeder said about the techniques.

“We set up situations just (to) see how people react, like a card table in Barnes and Noble to “meet” the author Anton Chekhov. Only one person went up and said, ‘Aren’t you supposed to be dead?’”

These situational exercises were just some of the bizarre practices to get associated with Boal’s ideas, which also included watching pop culture comedy like “Team America” and “South Park.”

“It’s the comedy that makes the political stuff succeed. If you can make somebody laugh about something, at least they understand that there,” Roeder said.

“It’s just hysterical though – these actors and these characters do incredibly ridiculous things – an incredibly fun play with an incredibly serious message.”

To coincide with Boal’s U.S. debut, his son, Julian, and Doug Paterson, the founding director of the Center of the Theatre of the Oppressed in Omaha, Neb., are holding workshops at the University.

They will discuss the theater techniques and have a free roundtable discussion on the subject next week.

Contini and Roeder both called the workshop opportunity “incredible,” but having Boal’s son in the audience does make Contini anxious.

“Julian is kind of carrying on the work of his father – that makes me a little nervous,” he said. “I’m worried he’ll call up Dad and say, ‘Oh, Dad.,’ you know?”