Mapping Brazil - Performing Arts: Cultural scene

Valmir Santos: “We know we are a country of 200 million inhabitants. The realities vary greatly in each region, in each state. The limited breadth of our public policies tends to be reflected on the ground. Even so, we can see how research theatre has progressed in the last 15 years beyond the major cultural and financial hubs that are Rio and São Paulo. They have become places where the conventions of drama are regularly challenged. There is a greater propensity to use hybrid languages and an increasing incorporation of performativity.

Some cases worth mentioning are Companhia Senhas in Curitiba; Companhia Rústica and Grupo Teatro Sarcáustico in Porto Alegre; Companhia Carona de Teatro in Blumenau; and Grupo Magiluth in Recife; not to mention other companies that have come to light in recent years like Companhia Brasileira de Teatro (Paraná), Grupo Espanca! (Minas Gerias) and Companhia Hiato (São Paulo).

The most inspiring dance productions I have seen recently were by Gira Dança from Natal and Movasse from Belo Horizonte.

There is a powerful movement in Porto Alegre. The gauchos have a tradition of acting in public spaces – conventional street theatre – but they have taken bold steps in formal terms with the idea of intervention and performance in projects by young, dedicated drama groups like Grupo Teatro Geográfico, Coletivo Errática, Muovere Companhia de Dança and Cambada de Teatro em Ação Direta Levanta Favela. Everything has been given a major boost in the last seven years by the Porto Alegre Street Theatre Festival, an international event which also offers diverse opportunities for training, reflection and exchange. In Florianópolis, also in the south of the country, it is worth looking out Grupo Teatral Experiência Subterrânea, developed in conjunction with the academic research of André Carreira, a lecturer at the State University of Santa Catarina.

I believe there is huge potential to be explored in Recife, where drama has a strong tradition. Unfortunately, the contemporary scene is still rather flat, held back by its so-called popular culture. But Grupo Magiluth, formed in 2007, has started to ring the changes in much the same way as the strong contemporary music and film movements in the state of Pernambuco. It would be wonderful for there to be an international exchange that could help this young group develop its full potential, for even now, with its well thought-out conceptions and questions about current society, it already does a Herculean job in the capital of Pernambuco, making public interventions, working with vertical scenic elements in indoor spaces and breathing a fresh lease of ‘artivistic’ life together with the Ocupe Estelita movement, which has galvanised multiple sectors in Recife.”

Valmir Santos is a journalist and theatre critic and researcher. He devised and edits the Teatrojornal – Leituras de Cena website. Since 1992 he has written for newspapers and magazines like Valor Econômico, Bravo!, Folha de São Paulo and O Diário de Mogi. He provides coverage of festivals in Brazil and abroad and has curated or provided consultancy for encounters in Recife, Belo Horizonte and São Paulo. He has written books or chapters telling the history of theatre groups. He holds a master’s in drama from the University of São Paulo.

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