black theater in brazil

8/7/2019 Black Theater in Brazil

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/black-theater-in-brazil 1/14

Black Theatre in BrazilAuthor(s): Oscar FernándezSource: Educational Theatre Journal, Vol. 29, No. 1 (Mar., 1977), pp. 5-17Published by: The Johns Hopkins University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3206497

Accessed: 02/07/2010 00:35

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless

you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you

may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.

Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=jhup.

Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed

page of such transmission.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of

content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms

of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

The Johns Hopkins University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to

Educational Theatre Journal.

http://www.jstor.org

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3206497?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=jhup

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=jhup

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3206497?origin=JSTOR-pdf



OSCAR FERNANDEZ

Black Theatrein Brazil

After many difficult years of frustration, blacks in the United States have finallybeen recognized and representedin the arts. This has not been the case with black

theatre in Brazil where, although some interesting parallels exist, there are signifi-cant differences.It should be emphasized at the outset that not only do almost all of

the historical difficulties and problems faced by black theatre in the United Stateshave counterparts in today's Brazil, but prospects there are complicated further bybasic social and political conditions which differgreatly from those prevailinghere.

Although a feeling of black consciousness exists in the South American country,

many things affect that consciousness. In the United States just a small amount of

Negro blood in the ancestral line has been, historically speaking, sufficient to brand

one as a Negro. In Charles Gordone'splay No Place to be Somebody, a light-skinnedblack man has a hard time finding work as a black and is rejectedby whites when

they discover he is, genetically, a black. In Brazil, descent and ethnic backgroundare

not per se all-determining social factors; color, together with such distinctive traits

as hair and facial features, means more than ancestry. As a matter of fact, it is cus-tomary to use the word "black" (preto) rather than negro when referringto a black-

skinned person. Obviously, there are a number of shades of skin color and, indeed,

other factors than color alone are taken into account when determining social posi-tion. A relatively favorable financial condition, good education, professional and

social status, can facilitate the crossover of mulattoes, and even blacks, into the social

ranks of the whites. When this happens in Brazil, the blacks tend actually to become

"white." In the United States, blacks can be accepted by a white society, but they are

still considered blacks. There are many sayings in Brazil which apply to this

phenomenon: "Money whitens"; "a rich black is white, a poor white is black." Con-

sequently, judgments on individuals will vary according to a number of factors-including the color, status, and feelings of the evaluator. In such a situation the veryblack-skinned tend to stand apartand to have the worst of it. However, this does not

mean that the mulatto and the lighter-skinned enjoy exactly the same benefits as the

apparent"whites." (Many Brazilians claim that miscegenation has developed to such

an extent that only a small minority of them canbe sure of being "pure white.")

Oscar Ferntindez is Professor of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Iowa. His article,

"Censorship and the Brazilian Theatre" appeared in ETJin 1973, and his translation of the Brazil-

ian play Payment as Pledged appeared in The Modern Stage in Latin America. He is preparing a

book The Brazilian Theatre, as Dramatic Form and Social Document. Research in Brazil was made

possible through a grant from the Social Science Research Council, with support from the University

of Iowa.

5



6 / ETJ,March1977

Gilberto Freyre, known for his sociological studies, indicates that early in this

century it was pointed out that in Brazil the practicehas been to make it easier for a

black to pass as a white than to hinder him, and Freyre goes on to affirm that raceinfluences the status of a Brazilian less than do class and region.' Marvin Harris,

Donald Pierson, CharlesWagley and others who have addressed themselves to this

matterhave expressedsimilar conclusions. Contributingover the years to this break-

down of a hard and fast racial line of social division, seen also in some other coun-

tries, is the number of mulattoes labeled as "whites," a fact used to advantage byabolitionists to further theircauseagainst slavery in the 1800oos.

A UNESCO study in 1951 found that discrimination did exist in Brazil, particu-

larly in the larger cities, but attributed it primarily to educational and economic fac-

tors.2 Rollie E. Poppino comments on the process of change: "The present situation

[1968] in Brazil, in which Negroes and mixed-bloods of partial Negro ancestry mayordinarily rise socially as far as their talents and accomplishmentswill take them, is

largely a product of the period since World War I. Obviously, this striking changein circumstancesowes much to the long-standing proclivity of Brazilians generallyto judge others on their individual merits rather than on the basis of color or ethnic

origin."3 Thus, although problems do exist among the middle and upper classes, the

feeling of separation is not comparablein degree, nor is hatred as deep or prejudiceas strong in Brazil as in the United States.4 This is not to imply that there is no

distinctly racial prejudicein Brazil. While I was in Brazil in 1968 there was such a

furor over a popular television program,in which a white girl and a black man were

lovers, that by the fourth episode the girl's race was changed. At the same time, astudy carried out by one of the country's leading newspapers revealed that racial

prejudicewas evident in hiring practices."

Nevertheless, in Brazil racial identification and lines of separation are less clear-

cut than in the United States. Thus, although the percentage of blacks there is much

higher than it is here, the development of a black consciousness is not especially

inviting to those who strive to cross over, and often do, into what in this country has

tended to be a no-blacks land. One can see why this makes the promotion of racial

groups more difficult and their existence more tenuous. The very dark and deeply

committed, who especially feel the effects of discrimination, are thus faced with

obstacles beyond those experienced by the American black. These Brazilians havetried, although on a much smaller scale, to establish their identity, to call attention

to it, and to develop a sense of brotherhood, confidence, and pride in their racial

1 Sobrados e Mucambos (Rio de Janeiro, 1961), p. 627.2 "Good Race Relations," Scientific American, 187 (November, 1952), 49-a Brazil: The Land and People (New York, 1968), p. 313.

4 At the First Brazilian Negro Congress held in Rio de Janeiro, 1950, one participant, clearly

much in the minority, denied the existence of color prejudice in Brazil. See Abdias do Nascimento,

O Negro Revoltado (Rio de Janeiro, 1968), p. 219. On the other hand, Florestan Fernandes, who has

studied the problem closely, presents the opposite, more prevalent position. See his, The Negro in

Brazilian Society, trans. Jacqueline D. Skiles, A. Brunel, and Arthur Rothwell (New York, 1969),p. xvii.

5 Jornal do Brasil, 11 March, 1968, p. 15.



7 / BLACKTHEATRE N BRAZIL

heritage. Forthem, the word negro is preferredto preto, as symbolic of the acceptanceand promotion of negritude, or negro culture.GThus, in the first three decades of this

century, in addition to more general and academically oriented sociological andethnic gatherings (as, for example, the First Convention on Afro-Brazilian Studies

organized by GilbertoFreyreand held in Recife in 1933), othermore activist-minded

groups have also made their appearance. Among these are included the Brazilian

BlackFront of So Paulo and the Negro Clubfor Social Culture. But it was not until

the establishment of the Negro ExperimentalTheatre in 1944 (Teatro Experimentaldo Negro), often referred to as T.E.N., or TEN, that such efforts made themselves felt

in many circles of Brazilian ife.

Although space limitations will not allow for an in-depth exploration and com-

parison with United States theatre history, we can at least indicate that a somewhat

similar, though much more limited, development of the black's place in the theatre

took place in Brazil. If our own country at first witnessed white men in blackface

in minstrel-type shows, there were examples of blacks in whiteface playing minor

roles in early Brazilian theatre. Blacks appearedamong the many minor characters

in the plays of Martins Pena, 1815-1848 (generally considered to be Brazil's first

important dramatist) and of others in the nineteenth century, and the curseof slaveryand the abolitionist cause are found as themes in certainproductions, especially note-

worthy being two plays by the eminent novelist Jos4 de Alencar.7These, however,

did not meet with a favorable reception, as the theatre public's interest was alongother lines and the country was not yet ready for this message. If in the United States

the black actor for many years found only limited access to the stage, he was, how-ever, allowed to take certain roles which seemed to demand his presence. (In 1920oCharlesGilpin had been given the lead in O'Neill's The EmperorJones. Paul Robeson

played the same role in 1923 and in 1943 began the first of his highly successful

performances in Othello.) This did not readily occur in Brazil. Significantly, it was

the O'Neill play which was to be most influential in motivating black theatre inBrazil.

While on a visit to Lima, Peru in 1941, the black Brazilian economist Abdias do

Nascimento attended a production of the O'Neill play. He was flabbergasted and

most upset to see the leading role played by a white man in blackface. The more hepondered the incongruity and injustice of the dramaticpresentation he had seen, the

more he felt compelled to do something about it. He also realized that, ironically, his

own country, which boasted of racialequality and often looked critically at the treat-

ment of blacks in the United States, was far behind in the opportunities it offered

blacks in its own theatre. Black characters were either played by whites in black-

6 For this reason I have used "Negro" in referring to their activities and those of the T.E.N.

group, mentioned below, and "black" in referring to blacks in general in Brazil and in the UnitedStates.

7 In O Dem6nio Familiar [The family devil] (1857) Alencar depicts the difficulties associated with

having slaves and the necessity of liberating them. In Mrie [Mother] (1860), a play not withoutits melodramatic touches, a black slave sacrifices herself in an effort to hide her son's ethnic back-

ground from him and others.



8 / ET], March 1977

face8 or were changed to whites.9 Other men who, like him, were proud of their

Negro background, such as Edison Carneiro,Romeu Crusoe, and Rosario Fusco, re-

acted strongly to the racial situation which prevailed in their country. Some of themfelt they were being abandoned and resented it, referring to mulattoism as a form of

"white lynching" leading to the eventual elimination of the Negro and making "the

integralexistence of the Negro impossible as far as spirit and culture are concerned."1''

It was under these circumstances that the Negro ExperimentalTheatre was born

in 1944. In the words of Abdias, its founder, "what was proposedwas the social ele-

vation of the Negro by means of education, culture, and art. We would have to work

urgently on two fronts: to promote the denunciation of the mistakes and alienation

purveyed by the studies of the Afro-Brazilianand to see that the Negro became aware

of the objective situation in which he found himself."" It was thus to be a psycho-

sociological group as well as an artistic one. It was not long before some oppositionmanifested itself, as in an anonymous newspaper article objecting to a black theatre

in Brazilwhere, contrary to the situation in the United States, prejudicedid not exist,

and where such practices might propagatesegregation.'2 Others, however, acclaimed

the move, including Guerreiro Ramos who called it "one of the most daring under-

takings in the cultural life of our country,"'3 and Roger Bastide, of France, who

recognized it as an effort "to free the Negro from his inferiority complex and the

white from his superiority complex.""'

T.E.N.'s first theatre experiencewas its participationin 1944 in a student produc-tion of Stela Leonardos'sPalmares, a work about black slavery in Brazil.'5 But the

8 This practice has been observed in some fairly recent productions. For example, the lead and

other important roles in Nelson Rodrigues's Anjo Negro (Black Angel) in 1948, Ant6nio Callado's

Pedro Mico in 1957, and Gianfrancesco Guarnieri's Gimba in 1959 were played by whites in black-

face. See Abdias do Nascimento, "The Negro Theater in Brazil," African Forum, 2, 4 (Spring 1967),

47.9Not long ago a Brazilian dramatist told me that he was amazed to discover that in the perfor-

mance of one of his plays the main character, written by him to be a black, had been changed to a

white man. The producer explained that in the Brazilian theatre there were two unalterable prem-

ises: blacks must be servants and priests must be good. Although this is not a universally held at-

titude, it is not at all an uncommon one, and it contributes to many of the problems experienced

by blacks in Brazilian theatre.

10Abdias do Nascimento, "The Negro Theater in Brazil," p. 44.

11 Ibid., p. 40.

12 "Black Theatre," in "Echoes and Commentary" section, O Globo, 17 October, 1944, reproduced

in Abdias do Nascimento, Teatro Experimnentaldo Negro: Testemunhos (Rio de Janeiro, 1966), pp.11-12. This and all other translations are mine.

13 In his, "The Negro in Brazil and an Examination of Conscience," an address given at the

National Negro Institute in 1949, and reported in Abdias do Nascimento, Teatro Experimental ...

p. 85.

14""Concerning the Negro Experimental Theatre," Anhembi (August, 1951), in Abdias do

Nascimento, Teatro Experimental..., p. 99.15 Palmares was the best known of several refuges for runaway slaves. After some fifty years of

existence the settlement was closed down by an armed expedition late in the seventeenth century.

Palmares furnished the basic situation fcr the So Paulo Arena Theatre's Arena Conta Zumbi

[Arena tells the story of Zumbi] in 1965, which used this musical version as a vehicle of protest,promoting liberty and free expression. The Arena Theatre's production was presented in the United

States in 1969.




production that was really to launch the group as a serious theatrical company and

to show blacks as legitimate artists was its presentation on 8 May, 1945 of

O'Neill's The EmperorJones. This was a natural choice, as no satisfactory nationalplays existed, and it enabled Abdias to put directly into practice the vows he had

made in Lima four years earlier. In its story, of a black who flees the white world

and who rises to power only to fall and eventually be destroyed, there is material that

could relate to the racialproblem, although much of what happens to BrutusJones is

due to his own failings as an individual. The play is a work of great dramaticpoten-tial and it provides possibilities for multiple theatrical effects. The production was

receivedwell, and criticism was generally kind considering the newness of the com-

pany. Aguinaldo Camargo, who played the lead, was especially commended. This

was probably the first time that black actors had trod the stage of the MunicipalTheatrein Rio de

Janeiro.The group's second offering, in 1946 and also in Rio, was another O'Neill work,

All God's Chillun Got Wings.'6 Here we have portrayed the relationship between a

black boy and a white girl who as innocent children are attractedto each other, as

young adults grow divided by their awareness of their difference in color, and who

as mature adults are reunited in marriagewhen he turns out to be the only human

being to offer her kindness and solace when she needs them. Despite her efforts,how-

ever, she is never able to cast aside the aversion to blacks engendered in her by

society. Eventually, she succumbs to madness and the young man's efforts toward

a career end in failure. Again, despite some adverse comments directed at the play

itself"7and at the limitations of the basically amateur actors and stage personnel,therewas general acceptanceandencouragementfor the ensemble.

By the time T.E.N. was ready for another productionin 1947 a work by a national

writer had been written for the company. It was O Filho Prddigo (The Prodigal Son)

by Licio Cardoso, an imaginative novelist who ventured into the theatre world un-

successfully, it turned out, as had several other novelists in the history of Brazilian

theatre. The play was performed in Rio on 5 December. The plot concerns a Negro

family living very simply on the soil in semi-isolation. A mixture of allegoricalBiblical tale and fantasy, the play never really comes off dramatically. In the first

part the members of the family lament their dark skin, although in their seclusion

they do not know that they are in fact different from other people. This fact isbrought out poignantly during the visit of a mysterious woman dressed in black, her

face covered, who, at their request, removes her veil and reveals herself as white

("Look at me, I am white made in the image of dawn"Is). She is envied by the

others, although the father remarks that her heart is the same color as theirs. A rest-

16 The Americanauthor,in a spirit of cooperation,waived royalty rights on T.E.N.productionsof his plays. See Abdias do Nascimento, "Teatro Negro do Brasil," Revista Civilizagio Brasileira

(July, 1968), pp. 200-201.

17 This play, when it was announced for performance in the United States in 1924, received some

opposition; but it was performed without incident by the Provincetown Players.

18sFrom the text of the play in Abdias do Nascimento, Dramas para Negros e Pr6logo paraBrancos (Rio de Janeiro, 1961), p. 51. This is a T.E.N. publication and it contains the texts of nine

plays, three of them by blacks.



I0 / ETI,March1977

less son who wants to break out and explore the world is captivatedby the strangerand leaves with her, returning some time later, successful, well dressed, and with

three slaves. As a lost son returned,he is feted, but not without incurring the pro-tests of his older brother who feels slighted and more worthy for having stayed at

home and borne the brunt of the work in their fields. The latter is eventually killed

by his own intriguing wife who has fallen in love with the prodigal son. The two

are banished forever by the head of the family, although the son objects. Laterhe

returns poor, humble, calm, somewhat stoic, reconciled with himself and to livingthe hard life awaiting him. He is welcomed again by his father. The play's im-

plausibilities are stacked alongside faulty motivation and development of action.

The apparentpoetic note is false and the work has little if anything to do with the

problem of the Negro. Reaction ran the gamut from excessive praise'" to excessive

criticism.2?On 23 December of the following year another play written for T.E.N. was pre-

sented. Again leaving the world of reality for the plane of fantasy, it dealt with the

orixds, the Negro divinities, but it had a charm and verve that the Cardoso playlacked. It was written by JoaquimRibeiro,erudite linguist and folklorist, and its title

Aruanda refers to a sort of never-never land, the realm of the Black Gods. Recallingsomewhat the well-known Amphitryon legend, it portrays Rosa Mulata, miserable,

dissatisfied with her husband Quelk who spends too much of his time at candomblt(voodoo) sessions. The black aspect of her nature tells her that this is as it should be,

that she should believe in candomblc, in its gods, and encourage him; but her white

side is not so convinced and questions this devotion, especially because his interestsleave him tired and not in the mood for the love and affection she craves. Relief

comes to her when she finds out that through a special song of invocation she can

summon Gangazuma, the god figure and lover, into her husband's body and thus

enjoy him through the stimulated, rejuvenated, and sexually transfigured Quel&.But her husband is puzzled. On some occasions, he is loved as never before; on others,

he is rejected roughly. Eventually he learns the truth and considers it adultery on

his wife's part. Rosa begs him to kill her. Realizing that death would free her to con-

tinue her pleasureswith her mystic lover in Aruanda,he decides, instead, to disfigureher-a decision that leads to her abandonment by Gangazuma, who cannot stand

ugliness, and to her perpetualremorse and loneliness.

The play, in its content and method, is rather traditional-dominated by elements

which over the years have been intricately bound to Negro culture. These are ele-

ments which would be favored and repeatedin a number of productions: the orixds,

mnacumband other voodoo rites, Negro folklore, songs, music, dance, and the ever-

present percussion instruments, particularly the drums (used so effectively in The

EmperorJones) which have figured in various ways in most black-related Brazilian

plays since then. It is obvious that ritual and its components have come to the fore,

with contemporary living and problems fading into the background. This all led

some viewers to categorize the work as more spectacle than theatre; others received

Is See Abdias do Nascimento, Teatro Experimental ..., pp. 44-47.20 See ibid., pp. 48-52; and Dicio de Almeida Prado, Apresentagnio do Teatro Brasileiro Mo-

derno (Sio Paulo, 1956), pp. 123-26.



11 / BLACK THEATRE IN BRAZIL

it rather warmly. The group was commended for its improvement, although some

flaws were still evident in its staging.21

Although its productions appeared to stress artistic objectives, one should not

conclude that T.E.N. had given up on the broaderrange of socio-political objectivesannounced earlier. It conducted classes ranging from elementary instruction in

reading to the study of cultural subjects; it conducted group therapy sessions; and

it sponsored or supporteda variety of programs and activities including the follow-

ing: a series of National Negro Conferences, a Negro Museum (under the National

Negro Institute), the journal Quilombo, the First BrazilianNegro Conference,Negro

Rhapsody (a musical, folkloric show), Negro Studies Week, a Mulata queen contest,and a Black Christ contest (for paintings depicting a Black Christ). An offshoot of

the Aruanda production was the consolidation of its musical group into a separate

entity, and underthe nameof Brasiliana t performed n Europe,as well as in Brazil.

Theatre-related activities continued. At a second anniversary festival in 1946scenes were presented from O'Neill's The Dreamy Kid and from Othello. Other

activities included a Castro Alves Festival presenting readings of the poetry of this

mid-19th century abolitionist, and a special program dedicated to Eugene O'Neill,

with scenes from plays of his previously performed and from Where the Cross isMade.

On 27 March,1949, the company presentedJos6de Morais Pinho's Fihos de Santo

(Saint's Children;"saint" here refers to a voodoo leader). Set in Brazil, the play in-

cludes a combination of cultural, racial, and economic elements and conflicts. A

simple, attractive black girl is in the center of a vortex of antagonistic interests: a

married white doctor provides the main pull in the mutual attraction which has

developed between the two; the doctor's wife pleads for herself and her children;the girl's mother, who had at first approved of the white man, comes to favor her

daughter's liaison with a would-be pai-de-santo (religious voodoo leader); a youngblack who has fallen in love with her wants to marry her; a young woman wants to

take her off to where the two women might live together; and her brother,a fugitiveblack activist, maintains a wild faith in the protection affordedby the voodoo quack.At the conclusion of the play, the girl's brother and mother have died; her relation-

ship with the doctor has ended-as has his with his family. The voodoo quack has

run away. There is no truly satisfactory resolution to the problemspresented in thispessimistic and tragic drama.Aside from its loose structure and faulty development,the dialogue is skillfully handled, and there are some scenes of substance and drama-

tic appeal.22

If blacktheatre in Brazil,however, was to be a recognizable genre with a promisingfuture, it would have to take the step its counterparthad taken in the United States

and producesome black dramatists.Again Abdias came to the rescue. His SortilIgio(Sortilege) was the firstplay by a black to be performedby T.E.N. Completedin 1951,it was not to be produceduntil 1957, and then only after a bout with governmentcensors.23Among the charges leveled against it were that it might worsen relations

21 See Abdias do Nascimento, Teatro Experimental..., pp. 62-69.22 See ibid., pp. 74-77.23 For censorship in Brazil see my article, "Censorship and the Brazilian Theatre," Educational

Theatre Journal, 25, 3 (October, 1973), 285-98.



12 / ETJ,March1977

between whites and blacks, and that it contained language not suitable for a public

performance. Thanks to the efforts of Sio Paulo's Theatre Critics Association and

others who joined in protest,Sortil~giowas released.

In a sense the play combines and epitomizes the highlights and salient aspects of

Brazil's theatre in general and of its black dramas in particular,with a few touches

reminiscent of foreign works. The opening and closing scenes show three Filhas de

Santo (Saint's daughters) preparing their strange voodoo brew (5 la Macbeth). The

basic monologic structure, wherein the protagonist, with a touch of mystery, re-

lates the problem of his life and refers to a possible crime committed, recalls Pedro

Bloch's very successful one-actor play, As Miios de Euridice(Eurydice'sHands). All

of this is presented in a staging which features effective use of lighting and flash-

backs on multiple stage levels, much in line with Nelson Rodrigues's successful

pioneer staging in his Vestido de Noiva (Wedding Dress) in 1945. The predicamentof a Negro unhappily married to a white woman had already been portrayed in All

God's Chillun got Wings, and this relationship was also seen in Nelson Rodrigues's

Anjo Negro (Black Angel), where a mixed couple kill their children. The ordeal of a

black man who is a fugitive from justice, who becomes obsessed as he struggles in a

conflict between convictions engendered in him by his education and by the appeal

of traditional black superstition or fetishism-these elements form much of the

story of The EmperorJones and in a lesser way appearin Filhos de Santo. As to the

Brazilian voodoo, music, singing, ominous drums, and dancing, also featured in

the play, these had been prominent in Aruanda and are a vital aspect of the black

traditionin Brazil.In Abdias's Sortilhgio, the theme of racial prejudicestands out, as we witness the

difficulties the black man faces, particularly if he tries a mixed marriage and seeks

to make his mark in a white world. We hear such complaints as the following: "No-

body selects his color. Skin color cannot be changed at will as one does a shirt ...

Destiny lies in one's color."'24On one occasion Emanuel, the young black husband,

says, "Haven'tyou noticed how whites look at you? With the air of masters?"25Nearthe end of the play he recapitulates,"I know therewas no place for me in that world.

No secluded area where I could live without being humiliated. No country that

would not be hostile. It's the same everywhere. They, the whites, on one side. No,

not on one side... On top. And the Negro... beaten..,. robbed... murdered... Oh,I am alone... And defeated!"26

Although the play can be commended for presenting and highlighting the prob-

lems faced by a black trying to make his way in a society controlled by color dis-

crimination, it can also be criticized for straying from realistic portrayal, even if

done, as it evidently was, intentionally. The author labels it in the subtitle a "negro

mystery," and in an initial note to the director indicates that an air of "mystery and

unreality" is essential.27 The ending amounts to a form of "cop out," with a less-

than-viable solution. Having lost hope in the future, the young black turns to the

24 In Abdias do Nascimento, Dramas ..., p. 164.25 Ibid., p. 173.26 Ibid., p. 190o.

27 Ibid., p. 6i.




past, in a sense, and to voodoo ritual and ceremony, and death. One may also wonder,

as I remarked earlier with respect to The Emperior Jones, to what extent the young

man's failure is due to his own limitations. There is no doubt, however, that the playwas a bold stroke and that it had an important impact on Brazilian theatre. The con-

troversy that it engenderedis of historicalsignificance.28

The T.E.N. anthology contains two other plays by blacks although they were not

produced by the group. Romeu Crusoe, in his probably semi-autobiographical A

Maldi;iode Canaan (Canaan's Curse), wrote what he claimed to be one of the first

novels in Brazil to concentrate on racial discrimination and the tribulations faced

by a black. It includes a complaint about the diminutive role played by blacks in

theatre.29 His O Castigo de Oxald (Oxali's Punishment), presented by an amateur

group in 1961, is another rendition of the struggles in a mixed marriage (black hus-

band, white wife), but here the setting is the author's region, the northeast of Brazil.It includes macumba, a chorus, dances, beating drums in a crescendo, inevitable

conflict, and ultimate tragedy (the black kills his wife as he tries to shoot a white

rival). This is taken to be the oxald's punishment. The black protagonist, who had

denied his heritage and opted for more modern culture and society, now returns to

tradition, to the African rites he had protested against earlier. The drama leans

heavily on the two O'Neill plays discussed above, on Sortiltgio, and perhaps evenon Othello.

The other work by a black is Rosirio Fusco's Auto da Noiva (Play of the Be-

trothed), a one-act made up of a prologue and four quadros (tableaux), written es-

pecially for T.E.N. The wavering mulata's dilemma is solved when her black lovereliminates his white rival. The author was aiming at poetic drama, but the play,which employs many familiar themes and conventions, is repetitious, weak, and

almost ridiculousat times in action and dialogue. I have no record of its performance.

Except for Anjo Negro, a reprint of a play which had appearedsome years earlier,the anthology ends with two works that were, to the best of my knowledge, never

produced. Agostinho Olavo's Alhm do Rio (Beyond the River) narrates the storyof a black Medea in seventeenth-century Brazil. Married to a white landowner, she

reigns like a queen until she is finally deserted by him in favor of the white girlhe is planning to marry. Medea, who had previously given up her African back-

ground and pagan practices, now resorts to witchcraft and fetishism as she seeksvengeance. A collar presented to the white fiancie chokes her to death. Then, con-

templating going into forced exile and adopting the life style of her past, Medea

drowns her two white children. T.E.N. had planned to enter the play in a festival in

Dakar in 1966, but government officials vetoed the project. Tasso da Silveira's O

Emparedado (The Prisoner) is a mediocre piece centered around the nineteenth-

century black poet Cruz e Sousa. In this rendition fantasy prevails over substance

28 Jose Paulo Moreira da Fonseca wrote that segregation is not the answer, but rather a sincere,

just integration of white with black; in Abdias do Nascimento, Teatro Experimental ..., pp. 161-62.

Adonias Filho saw it more as an esthetic effort; ibid., p. 164. Augusto Boal, who directed a later

production of the play, called it "a decisive step in the spiritual emancipation of the BrazilianNegro"; ibid., p. 154. Nelson Rodrigues, dramatist, spoke of its "firm and harmonious structure,its violent poetry"; ibid., p. 157.

29 Romeu Crusoe, A Maldigio de Canaan (Rio de Janeiro, 1~951), p. 30.



14 / ETJ, March 1977

and belief, as the protagonist bewails his color and lack of opportunity and reveals

his longing for a white wife and children. In a somewhat bizarre dream sequence

set in the Middle Ages, the poet is not allowed to enter a castle of whites, the chosenpeople, and is told to go away for he does not belong.

The Negro ExperimentalTheatre was the only group of its kind to enjoy any real

success in Brazil. At times it seemed it would become a most significant force, but

despite its heroic dedication and sacrificeand the Sisyphean efforts and contributions

of its mentor and factotum Abdias do Nascimento, it never attained the statureor the

following of the Negro EnsembleCompany in the United States. It had to close down

its journal and it met with other setbacks. Yet, we must remember that its obstacles

were much greater than those of its American counterpart.Not only was there less

enthusiasm for and adhesion to separate black activities in Brazil among blacks

themselves, but opposition was encountered from various sources and on variouslevels. Financial support, extended to black organizations in the United States, was

not forthcoming, nor were suitable rehearsal facilities or a theatre easily available.

Censorship hurt and other forms of governmental interference did not help. At

T.E.N.'s inception, as we pointed out, one newspaper immediately voiced its dis-

approval.30One writer, objecting to the concept of racial separation, considered

groups like T.E.N. counterproductiveand urged instead more assimilation with white

culture.31

Luiz Costa Pinto in his study of the Negro in Rio de Janeiroconcluded that T.E.N.had met with some success as a theatre company, and he noted that it became "the

most legitimate ideologic expression of the small intellectual and pigmented

bourgeosie in Rio de Janeiroand, without a doubt, in the country.'"32

In addition to a less active offshoot of T.E.N. in So Paulo and the Teatro Popular

Brasileiroin Rio (really a folkloric musical unit), other black dramatic groups have

surfaced in different parts of Brazil, as have societies dedicated in varying degrees

to promoting black causes in general. I shall comment on only some of the relatively

moreimportantof these.

As was true in the United States until recently, the bulk of what has been done in

black dramain Brazilhas been by non-blacks. In 1946 Nelson Rodrigues, one of the

company's top dramatists and artistic pioneers, wrote a play of which we have al-ready made some mention. Although it is grim and somewhat melodramatic, his

0•O Globo, 17 October, 1944, reproduced in Abdias do Nascimento, Teatro Experimental .pp. 11-12.

31 J. Etienne Filho in Tribuna da Imprensa, 14 January, 1950; as reported in Abdias do Nascimen-

to, O Negro Revoltado, p. 19. At the First Brazilian Negro Congress in 1950, one participant spoke

against black congresses and conventions. The text of his address was not included in the pub-

lished proceedings; see ibid., pp. 237-45. On a related front, but apart from T.E.N. itself, SBAT,

Brazil's main theatre organization representing authors and composers, did not favor a planned

Negro Music Festival, asking, "Since when do a black music and a white music exist in Brazil?

All authentic popular Brazilian music has black blood." It added the idea was probably imported

from the United States, was ill advised, and in its stead suggested a Folklore Music Festival. SeeRevista de Teatro, July-August, 1971, p. 11.

32 Luiz A. Costa Pinto, O Negro no Rio de Janeiro (Sio Paulo, 1953), P. 278.



15 / BLACKTHEATREN BRAZIL

Anjo Negro (Black Angel) is one of the more polished executions of the unhappy

mixed-marriage theme. A white woman, forced to marry a black, has had nothing

but hatred for him and has killed the three black childrenborn in his image. Desiringa white son for herself, she prevails upon her husband's blind half brother. Tragedycontinues as the latter is shot and killed by the husband. The fruit of the liaison is

not a son, but a white daughter. She is not killed by the husband, as he had plannedto do with a son, but rather favored and loved, after he blinds her at an early ageso that she will not know he is black. The mother, meanwhile, has taken an aversion

to the girl, and this is intensified years later when she sees that the now youngwoman will replace her. Finally, after insisting that for the first time she reallyloves her husband, and with his acquiescence, she locks the girl in a mausoleum to

eliminate her and then awaits him to begin a better relationship. The play had prob-lems with the censors who insisted,

amongother

things,that the role of the hus-

band be taken by a blackened white. The mulata was played by Maria Della Costa,

respectedwhite actress,bronzed for the part.

In 1955 Ariano Suassuna, also a fine playwright, wrote a work (produced in

1957) poised at the other end of the gamut, for his forte is the folklore of northeast

Brazil, which he mixes with humor. In his prize-winning Auto da Compadecida

(Rogue's Trial) Christ is portrayedas black and says to the jokesterwho is surprisedat finding him so dark,"You are full of racialprejudice.. . . I, Christ, was born white

and I decided to be born a Jew, as I could have been born black. To me, white man

or black is all the same. Do you think I am an American, with racial prejudice?"33

In its humor and racial characterization, we have here a step apart from and farbeyond that takenby otherwriters.

Perhaps best known is the gay but sad, real but romantic work of Vinicius de

Morais, Orfeu daConcei;io,

a modern black incarnation of the Orpheus-Eurydice

legend set in the slums of Brazil and in the streets of Rio during Carnival. This

award-winning drama is known in our country through the brilliant, colorful, and

intensely animatedfilm version OrfeuNegro (BlackOrpheus).

I was particularly impressed by two unusual volumes of plays which appearedin

1968.34They were by Zora Seljan, a white scholar who brought her research in black

folklore and her unusual talent to a series of original works based on ritual, leg-ends, and myth. Here the world of the orixis is pictured in lively, colorful fashion

with elegant costumes, songs, music, and dance, and with descriptive notes providedto assist the director and the choreographer.These pieces are more like musical re-

views than plays. Their author indicates her belief that they go beyond the apparentregional and national aspects and, in a sense, they do seem to reach for the universal

if one thinks of them in the tradition of early Greek theatre with its divinities and

mythology. She insists she is against any type of discrimination in the theatre:

33 Ariano Suassuna, Auto da Compadecida (Rio de Janeiro, 1962), p. 149.

34 Zora Seljan, Festa do Bomfim (Rio de Janeiro, 1958); the title refers to a religious festival. 3

Mulheres de Xang6 (Rio de Janeiro, 1958). The latter book contains three works: OxumnAbal6,

oxum being an orixd, a pagan divinity of beauty; lansan, Mulher de Xang6 [Iansan, Xang8's wife],she being a deity of the winds; he, the god of thunder; A Orelha de Obd (Obi's Ear), Obi being

Xang6's first wife.



16 / ET], March1977

"Thus this play was not written especially for a colored cast; on the contrary, I am

in favor of racial indiscrimination on the stage. The idea the people form of the

orixds is more one of personality than of physiognomy. White face or black matterslittle as long as the body can dance like an orixd and is dressed like one."35In spite

of the favorable reception and praise given these works, she has evidently had diffi-

culty getting them produced.

An appearancewhich momentarily attracted attention was that of the Grupo de

ACio (Action Group) of Rio de Janeiro.As stated in one of its programnotes, it was

formed "so that Negro actors could perform in the theatre, in television, and in the

movies, all roles from main to minor ones."36Furthermore,it aspired to study the

Negro's role in history and to relate its findings within dramatic works, hopefully

including some by black writers. Its leaders included the actor Milton GonCalves,

formerly of Sio Paulo's Arena Theatre, and professor and historian Joel Rufino dosSantos. Sponsored by an office of the State of Guanabara,its first venture in 1966was a musical version of Manuel Ant6nio de Almeida's novel of 1853, Mem6rias de

um Sargento de Milicias (Memoirs of a Military Sergeant). Interestingly enough,

all the roles for whites but one were played by blacks, and the parts of two black

slaves were played by white children. More in keeping with its announced objectiveswas Arena Conta Zumbi (Arena Tells the Story of Zumbi) by Augusto Boal and

Gianfrancesco Guarnieri, an imaginative dramatization based loosely on a historic

Negro revolt.:"7 he fact that the play had been presented earlier in a much superior

production by a white company led one respected theatre critic to lament that the

companyhad not made another selection."8The uncomfortable truth of the matter is that for about a decade black theatre in

Brazil, for all practical purposes, has been nonexistent. During the same period,black theatre in the United States has made substantial gains and has attained cer-

tain triumphs. There is some, although limited, awareness of this sad incongruityrevealed in a few occasional Brazilian references to the state of the movement here.

It may seem curious that a long feature article on black theatre, indicating advances

made in the United States, and published in Brazil after the writer's visit to our

country, was silent as to the status of black theatre in Brazil, except for the voicingof an objection to the appearancethere of white actors in black roles.39 The writer,

Eduardode Oliveira e Oliveira, did, however, follow this up with a work of his own,in collaboration with Theresa Santos, in which all the parts are taken by blacks, E

Agora ... FalamosNds (And Now... It's Our Turn to Speak). Firstperformed1971in the Art Museum's Theatre, it is a mixed literary-dramaticresearchedconcoction

of black history, customs, and life from African origins to contemporarytimes. The

piece includes music, songs, dance, and poetry readings-reflecting film and tele-

vision techniquesand themes, including the projectionof slides.

35 Zora Seljan, 3 Mulheres ..., pp. 17-18.36 Quoted in the newspaper Estado de Sio Paulo, 16 August, 1966, p. 13.

7 Also, see above, note 15, P. 8.

38 Yan Michalski, Jornal do Brasil, 8 March, 1967, p. 2, sec. B.a9

Eduardo de Oliveira e Oliveira, "Black Theatre," Literary Supplement, Estado de Saio Paulo,

25 July, 1970.




i:-iiii:ii-i:-i-i:i-i:iiiDili-i:i--iii-i:-lii----i-~-----i---.__ ..-.. . :::i:--:-:-:-::::::i',iiiiiiiiiiiiii::-::-:::-::i-::;:-:-':-:'i~:--'--:,iizi ..: :::::::: :::-:-i::-: i: :.-: -:-: :_1:::::::~:::::::::::;:::::::-::.:::n::::::::::::::::?:::::::::~-:::::-j::__:-__::;:__:__::B_~--/:::::~i:_: a7~ ~B~PSSe~QB~ii : :: ;.- .-. ..:....;-_-..:- --:::::-- __-~-::::::i::::::::::_:::::::::::::::?:j: :~-:~:: : X~jliiii~ r Ili~B~ga~~l_-_::i::-:::::I---:-I-:::-l-:l-iiii::--lI:1ii-~::-:-l-,::-::--:-:--i:ll-::l:iiiir: :: : --- :--.-:: ::-':*: : iiiiiigiifi'~,, ::::,: ......-.. :----iiiiiiii

-:-i-i--:ii:;-ii -: ::::_::_:::~:i::-:-~:_::-::::::::~?~--::::-::::: iiiii-iiji:iii, ".

-:,:i-:i:-:-~i:-;-:~::::::,:?::?-~~::?~:i:::::-:;...... ::'-:-:-:'::-::-'-'-':::::'--::'::--:-..--:-:i:_::Ii-i--i-i:iii:ii---ii .. i i~.. ::_:i::i:ii:i-::~:-iiiiiiiiiiiiii.:iiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiii :: :--~:----:_----1--i~_-::.:::iiiiiriii-i : : :-:-:-~:----

iiiiiii~ls~- ~P~:~LiiCi~iiFiiiiiiil-iiiiiiiiiii:ii.:..--: i-:iiiiij-:- :i :iiii~iC-~:iii-i-j:~'ii?k:ii':-:- ;.~ ":-..-..-

:::1::_

_i~-i

:-----

I~~k "P~S~j~i~BI~ II I 1 as1~88 ~ln~s~e~-

::::: ::: :i.

:::::::::

- --:;---.-:

~--I"

AbdiasdoNascimento, ounderof theNegro Experimental heatreof Brazil.Photoby Frank

Johnston. Reprinted courtesy of The Washington Post.

In summary, black theatre in Brazil has not experienced the development andsuccess that its counterpart has enjoyed in the United States (especially in recent

years). Exceptfor the gallant try made by the Negro ExperimentalTheatre, there has

been no sustained drive on any other front, and spasmodic bursts of apparentprog-ress have soon faded into limbo. Nor have any excellent black dramatists appearedon the scene. Certainly the extreme control exercisedby censorship and the generally

unhealthy conditions under which theatre and the other arts have had to exist in

Brazil under a military government have had their effect on all components of cul-

tural life. Black theatre movements, fighting against tremendous odds, have found

it especially difficult to take an effective stand. Yet, the basically non-viable situa-

tion which prevails for separate black activities tends to make one believe that al-

though black theatre may reappearfrom time to time in Brazil, it will probably not,in the foreseeablefuture,reach the level of attainment seen in the United States.

black theater in brazil

Documents