The introduction of theatre into Brazil was the work of the Jesuits who were concerned with the conversion of the Indians to catholicism and wanted to restrain the deplorable habits of the Portuguese colonizers. The Jesuit missionary Father José de Anchieta (1534-1597), in nearly a dozen plays inspired by the medieval religious dramaturgy and especially by Gil Vicente, made a name for himself in this task, though from a religious more than an artistic standpoint.
His work was not continued nor was it replaced by any other activity which has come down to us from the XVII and XVIII centuries, except for a few scattered documents. It is known, however, that "casas da ópera" (opera houses) were built during this last century in Rio, Vila Rica, Diamantina, Recife, São Paulo, Porto Alegre and Salvador, proof of the existence of regular theatrical activity. The theatre of Vila Rica (today Ouro Preto) is considered the oldest in South America. A Father Ventura is mentioned as the first Brazilian to devote himself to the stage in Rio, and his actors were "mulatos" (persons of mixed race).
The transfer of the Portuguese court from Lisbon to Rio in 1808 brought undeniable progress to the theatre, which was consolidated by independence in 1822, to which romanticism, of a nationalist character, was soon linked. In 1833 the actor João Caetano (1808-1863) founded a Brazilian company with the aim of "ending the dependence of our theatre on foreign actors". His name was linked to two fundamental events in the history of Brazilian drama: the première, on March 13th, 1838 of Antônio José ou o Poeta e a Inquisição, "the first tragedy written by a Brazilian and the only one dealing with a national subject", by Gonçalves de Magalhães (1811-1882); and, on October 4th in the same year, O Juiz de Paz na Roça, where Martins Pena (1815-1848) started the rich seam of the comedy of manners, the most caracteristic of our theatrical traditions.
Leonor de Mendonça, by Gonçalves Dias (1823-1864), is distinguished as the best Brazilian romantic drama. The plot, which is reminiscent of Otelo (Othello), is really an early feminist manifesto. The comedy of manners marked the succeeding schools of romanticism and symbolism, passing through realism and naturalism. From it came the most expressive plays, by Joaquim Manoel de Macedo (1820-1882), José de Alencar (1829-1877), Machado de Assis (1839-1908), França Junior (1838-1890) and Artur Azevedo (1855-1908), distinguished by the "burletas" (a comedy, lighter than farce, with music) A Capital Federal and O Mambembe. Different from these writers was Qorpo-Santo (1829-1889), considered to be the forerunner of the theatre of the absurd and of surrealism.
Theatre was not included in Modern Art Week in 1922, a symbol of artistic modernity. Only in the following decade one of its leaders, Oswald de Andrade (1890-1954), published three plays, one of which, O Rei da Vela, became the manifesto of the tropicalist movement in 1967. Those years saw the rise of the star actor as personified by Leopoldo Fróes and later by Procópio Ferreira. Only in 1943 with the premiere of Vestido de Noiva by Nelson Rodrigues (1912-1980) under the direction of Ziembinski did Brazilian theatre embrace modernity. But the excellence of the text still failed to bring supremacy for the author, only for the director.
Os Comediantes, an amateur group from Rio de Janeiro, first showed concern with the stylistic unity of the production. This concern continued with the Teatro Brasileiro de Comédia from São Paulo, which employed various foreign directors and originated various groups - the Nydia Lícia-Sérgio Cardoso Company, the Tônia-Celi-Autran Company, the Cacilda Becker Theatre and the Theatre of Seven (Maria Della Costa while waiting for her own theatre to be built was for a time a member and adopted the same principles in her Teatro Popular de Arte (Popular Art Theatre). The diverse repertoire of these groups led to a notable advance in the policy of the Arena Theatre in São Paulo, since the success of Eles Não Usam Black-tie, by Gianfrancesco Guarnieri in 1958, thus starting a phase of importance for the Brazilian author, even though they had put on, in 1955, the first performance of A Moratória by Jorge Andrade (1922-1984) and in 1956 the Auto da Compadecida by Ariano Suassuna (b.1927) amongst other works.
The military coup occurred in 1964 and it must be acknowledged that the ensuing years saw the primacy of the censor, but also the rise of a theatre of opposition to the dictatorship, from committed groups like Arena and Oficina from São Paulo and Opinião from Rio, to playwrights like Gianfrancesco Guarnieri, Augusto Boal, Dias Gomes, Oduvaldo Vianna Filho and Plínio Marcos. Authors who dealt in comedy, like João Bethencourt, Millôr Fernandes, Lauro César Muniz and Mário Prata followed the same path. A large but still uncounted number of plays were banned.
Later, when with the return of democracy the forbidden texts could be performed, the public was no longer interested in reliving old griefs. Perhaps it was for this reason that while the public waited for new ideas, the stage was filled by "besteirol" (nonsense theatre), although Mauro Rasi, one of its main authors, later plunged into autobiography. From the 1970s onwards, Maria Adelaide Amaral has shown herself to be an author of more consistency with better artistic results.
With the 1978 opening of Macunaíma, a transposition of the "rhapsody" by Mário de Andrade, Antunes Filho produced a radical rethinking of theatre, thus inaugurating the primacy of the director-creator. This trend, underlining the artistic autonomy of the performance, was responsible for some successes and some mistakes, such as the reduction of the word to a game of images. These excesses apart, the trend has produced names like Gerald Thomas, Ulysses Cruz, Aderbal Freire-Filho, Eduardo Tolentinho de Araújo, Cacá Rosset, Gabriel Villela, Márcio Vianna, Moacyr Góes, Antônio Araújo and various others, and recent theatrical seasons a happy medium that emphasizes all the elements of theatre has been reached.
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by Sábato Magaldi
