A Theatrical Island
Amilton Monteiro
Coordinator of the Performing Arts Course at Centro Universitário Barão de Mauá, Ph.D. in Theater from USP and Actor.
A clear, clear afternoon, blue sky, light breeze. On the slopes of a hill, hundreds of people participate in a unique moment of communion. Everyone contemplates a large stone circle, where demiurge actors act. In this way, I believe, and without demanding too much of the imagination,
we could portray the Theater of classical Greece.
Somehow, the image of this "The Island of Dr. Moreau" took shape in me. Perhaps not quite so inexplicably as I later found out.
There doesn't seem to be much doubt left about the heritage that Western culture received from the Greeks.
In this case, the Theater. With a capital T, yes, please.
"The Island of Dr. Moreau" in its modernity does not hide its origins. On the contrary, it is proud of also being Theater. With a capital T, yes, please.
The tragic structure of the narrative reveals itself step by step, and betrays itself,
in the end, a classic convention, it does so in the name of a very well-defined aesthetic project.
But that's just a detail.
We have forgotten that action in Theater is made up of words. The actor, when saying his text, leads us and induces us to perceive the world that he gradually reveals. The prologue of the play, by the way, makes this very clear. Theater tells stories. And leaves us free
to imagine what might happen after the curtain comes down.
This "Island" is exemplary - in the two aspects mentioned.
Passism?
Harold Bloom laments the loss of "canons" in Literature. In the case of the Theater, something similar
it had been hinted at for some time.
Many "media intersections" plague the Theater. Modern or modern "proposals" (with or without quotation marks) point to the "limitations" of the medium, which must be overcome.
Hence the occurrence of dubious "mixes", devastating terrain where everything is "updated" to the prevailing fashion rhythm in the next fifteen minutes.
There is a kind of dissatisfaction with the Theater, which, in Magaldi's admirable synthesis, is constituted by actor, text, and public, in immediate contact.
"The Island of Dr. Moreau", the result of deep and sophisticated research (no quotes...), and the product of the talent of its creators, simply offers us Theater.
One might wonder if at this step the group refuses the technological advances that have improved theater. Not at all. On this "Island" there are reflectors, electronically performed maneuvers, and the orchestra replaced by the burnt CD, possibly with an MP3 file downloaded from some site.
The difference is that all techniques converge on what matters: the spectacle. Theater in the rough and finely polished state. Unique, unrepeatable moment.
The universe is constituted by pure theatrical language.
Those who love Theater will be delighted to witness this show.
Act of the Ship of Hell Contemporary
Sebastian Milare
Theater critic and scholar
The medieval feeling does not stifle in Gil Vicente the conscience awakened by the Renaissance, which marked the Europe of his time. The poet manifested himself through autos and moralities, the main genres of medieval theater, which is religious by definition. In addition to explicit religiosity, Vincentian plays are impregnated with medieval popular humor.
Contrasting with these characteristics, however, the critical vision that leads and dominates the plots emerges, denouncing Renaissance thought as the articulator of ideas. The human issue prevails and even the allegorical characters have a certain psychological structure that humanizes them. These data distance the Vincentian work from the restricted perspectives of medieval theater and insert it in the Renaissance context, making it a bridge between two eras of theater. But, it would be unfair to attribute to Gil Vicente only the character of transition between the theater of the Middle Ages and the modern one, given the vitality of his poetic works, which transcend the formal question and consolidate his important position among the great poets of the World Theater.
His plays are full of life, humor, joy, and observation of human drama, whether plays or farces, comedies or tragicomedies. People from all social classes stroll through them, displaying rare virtues and countless defects, hand-to-hand with saints, angels, demons, witches, and fairies, in absolute promiscuity. The torrent of human types that make up the variety of the streets transits through his work as if he feels at home; this and the contempt for the unities of classical drama illuminate Gil Vicente's modern spirit. It transgresses medieval theater codes but takes advantage of its formal resources. The structures that he recovers (or preserves) from ancient theater acquire new forms because the process is triggered by a new ideology: somehow, God is removed from the center of the acts, giving way to the human being.
This point of view provided the bias for the staging of Act of the Ship of Hell by Jair Correia with the Grupo Fora do Sério. Radicalizing the idea, the Group completely removed the Divinity, from its conception, leaving only the human being to occupy the scenic space with his weaknesses, his vices, his cleverness, and his pains. Even the Devil, masters of Hell, and his Companion do not seem to be allegorical figures, strictly speaking, and even acquire, if not an autonomous psychological structure, at least an extraordinary “carnality”. The figures are humanized in pathetic and comic realism, removing them from mysterious spaces (paradoxically exemplary) and referring them to the criticism of the ills that affect human beings. In fact, Jair Correia subverted the religious character of the Vincentian auto based on the poet's criticism of the clergy in general, even including the Pope himself in the Act of the Ship of Hell. When crossing the Barca do Inferno, Friar Pândego appears, accompanied by a courtesan, taking the orgies in which he has always lived beyond death. These perverted clerics would be exceptions in the Church as a whole, and by lashing them with the relentless whip of comedy, Gil Vicente was not criticizing the Church, but purifying it. Jair Correia's reading, however, seems to generalize the Friar's misconduct, making him an example of the hypocrisy that drives acts and attitudes of “professional religious”. Of course, in this case,
it does not refer only to the Catholic Church, but to the great circus that countless mercenary sects are constituting in our days. Jair Correia's subversion is not on the surface of the plot,
that is solved with the personification of vices from a moralistic point of view, and goes deeper. It denies the Divinity itself, which in the original is personified by the Angel, the arrays of Paradise, and in the Fora do Sério version it became a recorded voice. This is how he physically denies the Angel, confusing him with that contemporary neural of people being answered by a recorded voice.
Why then not eliminate the Devil and his Companion physically, since they too are deities? He does not do so because, in the first place, the Devil is the true protagonist of the Barcas trilogy and the Angel is a mere supporting actor. If the Devil's physical presence were eliminated, the text would disassemble, and the show would be without an axis. But the physical elimination of the Angel and the maintenance of its text through the recorded voice offer rich connotations with ideas such as the invisibility of God or the virtual commands that contemporary man mechanically obeys in his daily interaction with the Machine. Furthermore, the Devil and his Companion, in this version, are humanized and catalyze the vices of the creatures who are forced to take the Barca do Inferno for their crimes, trickery, and insensitivity. Therefore, they are part of the human contingent, they know misery, hatred,
greed, and authoritarianism, which are some of the weapons that
the man is using for his self-extermination.
And, at this point, subversion leads the director to meet the poet's spirit, with his humanist vision, building a critical portrait of society through metaphors. Five centuries separate one from the other and in that time much has changed on the face of the Earth. So too metaphors must change. The Holy War of the Crusades, for example, is today the Holy War of Oil. Everyone is fighting in the name of God, whether Americans or Arabs and who will have the honor of getting on the Boat of Glory? In the Middle Ages, it was the European Crusades that guaranteed rights to Heaven, because in the name of Christ, they killed infidels to “rescue” the Holy Land in the name of the Holy Church. Today, the human conscience demands that differences be respected and, in this case, how can we not also respect the rights of the children of Allah, Mohammed, or Buddha to the Holy Land and to life? The solution found by Jair Correia for this impasse, which is legitimate for a Boat that serves the Contemporary Inferno, was to transform the four
Knights with the Cross of Christ on an American soldier and an Arab in a fight. It destroys, therefore, the possibility of closing in praise of the Church, sung by the Angel: “You are free from all evil,/ martyrs of Mother Church,/ who dies in such a fight/ deserves eternal peace”, to contextualize the Auto in our days. And, in our days, the medieval Gloria's Boat is literally perforated: when the warriors enter it, the pressure makes water squirt from the bottom of the hull. And they will go on beating each other for eternity, without God having anything to do with it.
Thus, Grupo Fora do Sério presents a version that is at the same time updated and faithful to Gil Vicente's text. And he does so with the techniques he has been developing for over a decade, based on Commedia Dell'Arte, the use of masks and the art of the clown, using unconventional spaces with the pertinence of a group that was born on the street, performing street theater.
The grace of a Renaissance piece
Mariangela Alves de Lima
Criticism - Section 2 - The State of São Paulo
A serious group that researches and knows how to stylize the documentary material it consulted, Fora do sériO expresses itself better through its affection for the roots of theater than through critical reflection. It is carrying out a cultural task of the utmost importance when it shows contemporary audiences the beauty and grace of this historical foundation of Iberian theatre.
This "Act of the Ship" is beyond serious.
Eduardo Castanho
Tramédia Group
A clear, clear afternoon, blue sky, light breeze. On the slopes of a hill, hundreds of people
"Act of the Ship of Hell" is undoubtedly one of the best shows I've seen lately, uniting techniques based on Commedia Dell'Arte, masks, and the art of the clown.
And all of this is no coincidence, as Grupo Fora do SériO came to show that its name is greatly honored. With a beautiful montage of the text by Gil Vicente, directed by Jair Correia, the adaptation of the text "Act of the Ship of Hell", made by Grupo Fora do SériO, came to show an updated and faithful version of Gil Vicente's text, criticizing and satirizing politicians, leaders and the Church in a more than eccentric way, comparing events of centuries
back to the present day.
Highlight the beautiful bodywork of the actors, prepared by Miriam Fontana. Comments aside for the exceptional staging by André Cruz, who plays the role of the Devil and never leaves the scene for a single minute.
The piece shows the adventurous boat
Monica Rodrigues da Costa
Criticism - Ilustrada - Folha de São Paulo
The opening song about the river in "The Story of the Boat" is worth the spectacle. By Ilo Krugli and Ronaldo Bastos, the song represents, in rhythm, the undulations of a river and a boat sailing towards the sea. Not only "The River", but the entire soundtrack is also competent, as well as the plot,
the narration of the story by the protagonist actress, Tânia Alonso, the manipulation of objects and lighting.
"The Story of the Boat", with text by Ilo Krugli and direction by Míriam Fontana, tells how little Pingo 1° manages to free himself from his anchor and goes in search of Irupê, the flower he falls in love with. During the adventures - and there are several -, he renames things in the world for the spectator, who, at the end of the play, is singing the songs and thinking that any
the object can become a character.
This is because the symbolism of the show is so creative that it makes a
clothes iron and plastic containers turn into a mighty ship or a
light blue cloth turns into sea waves.
Boat looking for friends
Dib Carneiro Neto
Critic - Caderno 2 - O Estado de São Paulo
A theater company from Ribeirão Preto is making a splash in the capital, staging a children's classic by veteran playwright Ilo Krugli, The Story of the Boat, at Centro Cultural São Paulo. The talent already begins with the prologue chosen by the group to introduce the audience to the fantasy universe of the play: an intelligent game of opposites between what is big and what is small. The three actresses (Tânia Alonso, Eula Halack, and Sandra Corradini) show how, on the same day, parents can say that their child is small ("Don't do that, you're still a kid!") or big ("Stop acting like if it was a little baby!"). The public's identification is immediate and, thus, the piece gains the green light to immerse itself in its calm rhythm, full of symbologies and metaphors. "In fact, what really matters is that we are the size of the stories we tell",
finish them off.
The themes of Krugli's text are friendship, solidarity, solitude, and, above all, freedom. But everything is suggested poetically, without boring speeches. The montage makes good use of all the resources of animated object theater, bringing to life clothespins, an iron,
a corkscrew, and a duster. (...)
Act of the Ship of Hell gets updated reading
Daniel Vicente
Rabisco - Revista de Cultura Pop
Sério, under the direction of Jair Correia, from the play Act of the Ship of Hell, by Gil Vicente. The show is on display from April 3 to June 28 at the Centro Cultural São Paulo.
Gil Vicente, born around 1470, is considered the father of Portuguese theatre. His work, based on the legacy of medieval culture, uses the popular meter in games of morality and farce. In addition, Gil owns the renaissance spirit of the practice of criticism and denunciation of institutional irregularities and social vices. His genius is compared to great masters of Western literature, such as Camões and Shakespeare.
In Act of the Ship of Hell, Gil Vicente's intention is clear to expose the great human vices in a satirical and stripped-down way. The way found for this lies in the characters, or rather, in the souls that show up at the port in search of transport to the other side,
within the Catholic and Platonic view of heaven and hell.
The montage of the Fora do Sério group can be considered a translation, in which the essence and characteristics of the original are meticulously respected. What is impressive is the fact that the complexity of a work written in archaic Portuguese is transposed and exposed
almost colloquially, without having his integrity hurt.
In order to preserve the humor of the text, it was necessary to update some characters. “I couldn't destroy the work. By transposing it, I bring names from our everyday life, some iconoclastic names”, says director Jair Correia. An example of this is the replacement of the crusades by the conflict between the American and the Arabs. These and the fool were the only ones not taken to hell. However, it is thanks to a dagger blow by the American soldier that the sky sinks with his boat.
In this way, a critique belonging to a contemporary reading of facts remains in the air, which, beyond the eyes of religion and social analysis, brings influence and indignation toward the attitudes of a state oligarchy. This one, which has a unilateral vision centered on political domination,
other people culturally and economically.
Anyway, more than a noticeable concern with the original characteristics of the text, this adaptation presents a visually very well-conceived show. It is worth checking.
Gil Vicente is not dead
Menalton Braff
Writer
When you watch a show surrounded by the greatest care in its production and respect the author's intentions in every detail, when you watch a show like this, you realize how and why a great author is great because he is eternal. Gil Vicente,
the montage of the group Fora do sériO, directed by Jair Correia, is complete,
he is alive with everything that was dearest to him.
But anyway, who was Gil Vicente? In 1502, a palace goldsmith went to pay his respects to the infant who had just been born, the future king D. João III. Especially for that occasion, he wrote the Act of the Ship of Hell visitation, a play also known as Monologue of the cowboy, presenting it in the queen's chamber, which remained in seclusion. The success was such that from then on, the goldsmith Gil Vicente would have to accumulate his duties as Master of the Scale with the production of
44 plays between autos and farces that he wrote until 1536.
Gil Vicente was a moralist, in the sense that he wrote his plays with the aim of, exposing the main human vices, and collaborating in the improvement and improvement of humanity. It is difficult to understand the work of this genius Portuguese without understanding the punishing ridendo mores, an expression that can be translated freely as "Laughing, customs are corrected".
This is the meaning of the satires with which he lashed all the social types of his time.
In this Act of the Ship of Hell, the author's intention is to parade before our eyes a large number of souls who come to the port in search of a boat that will take them to the other side. Noblemen, shoemakers, fools, pimps, priests, attorneys, and judges, of them, present themselves as candidates for a passage on the boat of paradise, but, because of their vices during life, they are refused. Only the fool and two crossed knights are invited by the angel. The former for never acting with malice while I lived, and the latter for having fought for the Christian faith. The others are being convinced to get on the boat whose captain is the devil.
Because this was the Gil Vicente that Jair Correia offered us. There were minor changes to the text, mostly to Old Portuguese words that the audience could not understand. There are words and expressions in a five-hundred-year-old text that, without translation, it is impossible to understand. Yeramá, for example, no longer exists. In Gil Vicente's text, it means "wrong occasion", or "bad time". Some figures from the time have also been updated so that the humor of certain passages is not lost. The Jew, a stereotype of the Middle Ages, has been replaced by the shepherd avid for money, like many people out there. The crusaders are presented to us in the skin of an Arab and an American (Jew?) who fight each other the whole time they remain on stage. Small changes we win with, as the author's intentions remain the same and are only "translated" for the contemporary viewer. And this without losing the archaic flavor of the original text.
A good example of respect for the original text was the permanence of round verse and the rhymes that characterize Gil Vicente's theatre. The actors' elocution difficulty is much greater, but a translation that does not affect the author's style is also difficult. Gil Vicente is the first Portuguese playwright to set a text, building a literary theater, thus standing out from the tradition of medieval theatre. This decision by the group Fora do sériO was very correct and deserves nothing but praise.
A very well-crafted solution was also the angel transformed into a pure voice reproduced on a loudspeaker as opposed to the devil with a present body: hideous, disgusting. Every time the angel appears, the spotlights project a soft blue light onto the stage, suggesting an ethereal and spiritual environment. The devil is corporeal, he is a vile and despicable matter.
Add to that a very well-conceived plastic show, with appropriate scenery and very suggestive costumes, and you have a very, very alive Gil Vicente. Unmissable.
Hellenic:
Helena's new profile
Luiz Puntel
Writer
The world, through the centuries, has always been guided by a male posture. The examples to confirm this assertion are numerous and even prosaic. Who wrote the Bible or the Quran? It was men. The supreme creator entity of the universe is translated by the masculine name Jehovah, Allah,
or God, who in all religions is a male figure.
And because the world has been guided by a masculine posture, it has always had, logically, masculine values: power, competition, and - evils of evils -, brute force,
translated into the thousands of wars waged.
Making a parallel between the ancient world and the current one, the assertion remains. Let's call them medical wars, or Punic wars, in antiquity, the Vietnam war, or the Yugoslav war, to linger on recent examples, Humanity has always been guided by brute force.
Historically, the interior of residences has always been reserved for the feminine, a counterpoint to the masculine world, more precisely in the Greek gynoecium. The bourgeoisie, for example, in the late Middle Ages, maintained these values. And until today the values remain, in the kitchens,
on the edge of the wood stove from the last century and the beginning of this one.
In the various historical changes, this archetype has remained.
Undoubtedly, these values are valid, that is, it is pertinent for the female world to turn inwards since the metaphor of the mother's womb is always present in each generation.
On the other hand, the same historical process that placed women in the countryside created the Industrial Revolution, which placed them shoulder to shoulder-with the male universe. From then on, the woman also started to incorporate masculine values, without abandoning the feminine in itself. With that, the woman enters a crisis, wanting to find her definitive historical role at the end of this century. In time, it must be made clear that this crisis is extremely healthy, as it tries to reconcile the
harmony between masculine and feminine.
Helênica, a poetic text by Sílvia Jacintho, proposes precisely this rethinking of the female role. The modern Helena seeks, in a flashback process, historical resumption, if you think, think about the historical female role of the Greek Helenas. In this way, going back to the Greek past, revisiting her ancestor dealing with the gynoecium, with domestic chores, in a world where women were reserved for the role of home keeper, she rescues, not the role of fire and cooking, but draws, historically, the modern woman who blossoms, without rejecting her historical role,
the masculine values of the modern world.
Mixed with the charms of Aphrodite and the armor of Palas Athená, the modern Helena no longer submits to the kidnappings of the Trojan Paris. It is she who, hand in hand with them, goes out to fight to, with them, fully realize the human being.
In this way, the play Helênica, based on the poems of Helena Sílvia Jacintho, staged by the group Fora do sériO, with the cast of Helena Míriam Fontana, Érica Rossi, and Vânia Lucas, directed by Míriam Fontana, collaborates fundamentally for the historical rethinking of the Woman. And that's why it's an unmissable piece. Unmissable for its beauty, its grace, its femininity.
Finally, as the feminine only exists in dichotomous tension with the masculine, and vice versa,
it is worth noting the music by Mário Féres, the scenography, executive production and
visual conception by Jair Correia, the costumes by Luciano Perin,
photography by Rubens Guerra, paintings by Geraldo Lara.
Hellenic
Fernando Brandao Santos
Professor Dr. Greek Language and Literature Assistant at FCL at Unesp.
On October 6th, at 9 pm, as part of the schedule of the National Symposium of Classical Studies and the XI Meeting of the Brazilian Society of Classical Studies, the Municipal Theater will receive the group Fora do sériO with the show of music, poetry and dance HELLENIC, conceived and directed by Miriam Fontana. The base of the Show is centered on the book of poems by Silvia Jascintho, Helênica, awarded in 1992 by the Brazilian Union of Writers as the best poetry book.
Silvia Jascintho's book is already revealed in the reading, and as Professor Antonio Medina noted, "but above all, an ethics of writing throbs in Helênica's poems that is rare in poetry today." With a clear, limpid language, Silvia Jascintho, in the form of poetry, opens not only the mythical but also the life that throbbed among the rubble of what today looks like an uninhabited ruin.
Hellenic performs on stage what we have known in theory for some time: poetry in ancient Greece was necessarily conceived as a performance, that is, it was composed to be performed in front of an audience at public or private events, including recitation pure and simple, recitation accompanied by musical instruments, singing, singing, and dancing. It was up to the poet, then, not only to arrange the words but also to conceive the entire performance of the poem. Pindaro, the prince of poets, composed his laudatory poems for the athletes of the various sports festivals (Olympic, Pythian, Isthmian, and Nemean games) in the form of choral singing, comparable - with due regard for cultural differences - to the parades of schools of samba.
Míriam Fontana, based on this premise, takes Silvia Jascintho's poems and performs them, giving three-dimensionality to the printed page. However, his conception of the show does not stop there. Due to his theatrical training, he gives poems (or highlights them) their dramatic, theatrical potential. Thus Hellenic, in an efficient way, takes up one of the most ancient manifestations of the West, putting on stage the Greek woman, apparently distant in time and space from us. Apparently, because the name Helênica, coming from Silvia Jascintho's book, already reveals the bridge that the show intends and succeeds in building between the woman of 2,500 years ago with all
women of all time.
Helen, the most famous of the Helens, is the cause, in Greek mythology, of the famous Trojan War. Having been kidnapped by Paris, a Trojan prince, she abandons her husband, children, and parents, living in the Trojan court, according to some, against her will, according to others, seduced by the beauty of the young foreign prince. All this, in the myth, is due to the tricks of Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty and sex. We don't know if such characters actually existed, but what cannot be denied is Helena's situation as a woman, an object of seduction, attraction, and reason for discord among men. Helena is Greek, that is, Hellenic. Although both names are etymologically unrelated, they make up the fabric that unfolds before our eyes and ears,
with its delicate ornaments.
The ornaments under which Helênica's text rests are guaranteed by a scenario by Jair Correia, plastically well resolved and in tune with the whole of the show. The seasonings come from the musical kitchen of Mário Feres - sometimes it reveals sweetness, sometimes it becomes spicier and stronger, having Greek musicality as a reference, that mixes the western sound with the exciting eastern strangeness. Vânia Lucas increases the refinement of the palate of the show with her viola da gamba, flutes, and voice. Érica Rossi sets in motion, through her dance, the entire orchestration of the poetic show, it is worth remembering that, for the ancient Greeks, the orchestra was the place where the actors developed their choreographies.
When one talks about the ancient Greek world, its history, its language, its philosophy, the first impression one can have is that we are talking about things, people, and situations so distant, to the point that there are even those who, for example, question the validity of your study in our faculties. [As a professor of Greek Language and Literature, I am totally and evidently suspicious of speaking about the validity and necessity of these studies for the formation of better human beings.] Helènica goes against the current that is deadly and stultifying for the consciences of young people who will cross the millennium. Its path is the opposite of the stagnation that invades cultural production in the country, because through honest work, such as the poems of Silvia Jascintho, Míriam Fontana, with her direction and performance of Helênica, removes the patina from our eyes, reveals that this world ancient is present and can be a path: "Hellenic is in me the path of an inspiration
who of his own free will wanted to manifest himself."
If you doubt this assertion, check it out.
Life and Mask
Amilton Monteiro
Coordinator of the Performing Arts Course at Centro Universitário Barão de Mauá, Ph.D. in Theater from USP and Actor.
I have the impression that the idea of theater - taken in its most essential sense, historically and metaphysically - is so present in the human spirit that we are hardly aware of it.
Since Antiquity, passing through the Middle Ages, crossing the centuries and western standards of culture, the idea of a "theater of the world" still remains (without referring to the eastern theater, whose trajectory even today is full of religiosity, perhaps inaccessible
in our eyes and hearts).
However, in the meeting of these two mentalities, a common idea is that of a manipulative God, creator of the plot, owner of all the characters and their characters, conductor of the comedy (or tragedy) of the lives of all of us, human puppets.
This ancestral idea manifests itself, even today, in an almost "natural" way. We live, after all, in the "society of the spectacle", we take the symbol for the thing itself, and for some time sociologists and psychologists have been postulating "roles" that we are condemned to play throughout our lives. Thus, the world is one big theater, and "everybody acts"
(as recalls the motto of Shakespeare's Globe Theater).
Our "masks" disguise us in order to reveal ourselves. And here I link the impression confessed at the beginning to remember those two masks, the one that smiles and the one that cries, the one that exalts and the one that moans. The mask is the theater itself and life itself.
The mask has a magical meaning, even before it becomes a link
(or of reconnection, religion).
The god of the theater, Dionysus, is made known to us through three great mythical origins (epiphanies), in which he was presented in effigy, statue or mask.
The fact is therefore transcendent: the divinity will be inaccessible, except through the artifice of representing a face that is not a face, which will always be a mask.
But if we put ourselves behind that mask, we experience the feeling of omnipotence. For a few moments, hidden, we can put ourselves in the place of divinity. And look at the world with different eyes. And that instantly makes us close to divinity, which is why, when we remove the mask, we can no longer be as before...
I firmly believe that this dialectic, of revealing by concealing and hiding by revealing, can be achieved and apprehended by looking at a true theatrical mask.
All that is needed is that non-technical experience of simply letting the eye abandon itself to that gaze.
It is time to say that these reflections were provoked by the artist Jair Correia. In his workshop, I went to see the collection of masks he is creating for the collection of Performing Arts Course at
Barão de Mauá University Center.
I know the work of this singular artist, but what is presented is always a new revelation. He is not satisfied with the mere reproduction of images of masks - from the Greek ones to those of Commedia Dell'Arte, passing through the Roman ones of the Atelana comedy. No. He wants to print the soul of what these faces represent. I said faces not out of distraction, because those leather or paper masks, in their apparent immobility, exude life. Take one in your hands: tilt it one way, then the other. Look at it from top to bottom and vice versa. Then place it in different planes in relation to the light. Ready! The magic happens. We are impressed by the potential mobility of those "immobilities". I write trying to describe the indescribable. The mask is a living, sensitive, profound experience. The mask "tells" everyone and everyone. Each mask is a universe.
Don't even talk about carnival masquerades around here, please! We speak of a disguise of a different nature, of dialectic, I repeat, that touches us deeply, that "historicizes" us, if you like, but that, above all, frees our imagination to the limits of
essential knowledge - and may Plato forgive us!
Jair Correia's masks are works of art in themselves. But, for us, who live in the theater, they are - in addition, instruments of a technical nature. The actor lives off the mask, that is, the character and the theater are only fully realized through the live presence of the actor. The relationship with the mask, in this sense, is indispensable to him, and if we can speak of "technique", the actor's relationship with all these masks is, in addition to being enriching, fundamental.
This is the reason why the Performing Arts Course at Centro Universitário Barão de Mauá, in good time, understood the importance of an unprecedented study in Brazil, that of Improvisation with Masks
(which is already being taught by Míriam Fontana).
If there's anything better than that, it's just the fact that the masks were created by Jair Correia.
SEPTEMBER 99
Mask
Sebastian Milare
Theater critic and scholar.
Disguise. Dissimulation of the Self by the Other. By putting on a mask, the individual annuls his identity by assuming another character. Whatever its purpose, it will trigger the first human need to alter objective reality. Re-links the current to the archaic retraces the sacred path of man because it was through the alterity provided by the mask that man represented
and established contacts with the deities.
The mask is chaos. It appears in the undifferentiated world where divinity/man/animal is a unit that metamorphoses, eliminating its intrinsic differences so that the self is also eliminated, with the collective prevailing. And the mask is its instrument. It concretely fixes aspects of reality, making it an archetype. A paradigm. That is why masks were used interchangeably in archaic societies, whether in Africa, the East, Europe, or the Americas. It is a form of expression superimposed on the personal expression of the man who wears it.
Act of mythical order that generates otherness and drama.
The drama! Tracing the origin of the mask, the theater ends up manifesting itself as a cosmic force in the midst of popular rituals of cult to deities. The mask explains its nature: the disguise, the dissimulation of the Self by the Other. It is the pretense of being a god, on the part of men, and of being a man, on the part of the gods. Often, they resort to animals to express paradigms, and archetypes. But this dialectical movement of the Self and the Other is changing with societies.
The contemporary actor maintains the sacred stigma of the mask: not using a structure of canvas, plaster, or any other material, but leaving his face free of personal expressions so that the Other, the character, can manifest itself. And with his masks, the actor fixes aspects of human reality, making them paradigms for the contemporary man in his daily life. Even to the man who doesn't go to the theater. The mask manifested in a great actor is strong and is transmitted through those who have an energetic relationship with it, as a spectator. The same occurs in other contemporary rituals, in which masks emerge, such as rock concerts.
But if the face itself as a support for masks that emerge and disappear is the commonplace "mode" of modern theater, masks made in different
types of materials have not been banned.
Already in the Renaissance, Commedia Dell'Arte appeared, not only using masks but creating a gallery of stylized types (intonations, crystallized tics, all fixed psychology), which were virtual "masks". An actor would specialize in one character and do it their whole life. Many times, he inherited the character from his father, who also spent his whole life doing it, and bequeathed it to his son, who would continue the tradition. They were, therefore, actors of vast experience. This means that the dramatic use of the mask requires great preparation from the actor. If you just wear the mask and hang it over your face, you can be a reveler, never an actor. By putting on the mask, the experienced actor is transformed. Your body transforms, your gestures transform, and even your breathing transforms. It annuls its identity so that the Other can manifest itself. This is an art:
it is not a vague idea, it is knowledge.
In fact, the use of the mask in modern theater has been parsimonious. However, increasingly aware of its playful and mythical value. Great artists dedicated themselves to the study and experimentation of the mask. The contemporary theater is the sum
of all this and in him the mask regains its importance.
However, if the actor requires preparation and a lot of experience to use it, art – in addition to craftsmanship – is also required of those who create and make them. It is not enough to know how to use the material, you must have the sensitivity of the mask. In that small structure made to cover the face or part of it, the poetic idea of a type or an entity is concentrated. There is the archetype that will propitiate the creation of the actor. There is the Other. The masks created by Jair Correia belong to the superior understanding of the mask as an archetypal expression. And they belong to this territory because they were not generated just as an aesthetic pronouncement but as an instrument of the actor's art. They are objects that are only justified on stage, covering the actor's face. However, they are also works of art, with their indispensable autonomy: they enchant the spectator, tell him things,
creates an ineffable state, they are permanent announcements of dramatic action.
Certainly, Jair Correia's excellence as a plastic artist extends to masks, but what gives him the sensitivity of the mask is his condition as a man of the theater. He has the life experience of wearing a mask in a decade of work with Grupo Fora do SériO. He knows her intimacies and establishes a creative dialogue with her. He deeply studies the history of the mask in different civilizations and this consolidates the artist's familiarity with the created object. Never reducing the object to a purely aesthetic act, always preserving its function.
And it is the function that makes the mask a sacred object.
Seeing Jair Correia's set of masks is a privilege.
SEPTEMBER 2000
Notes on Hellenic
Amilton Monteiro
Coordinator of the Performing Arts Course at Centro Universitário Barão de Mauá, Ph.D. in Theater from USP and Actor.
The play's poster announces "a theatrical performance with poetry, dance, and music". It is not false advertising. But isn't theater, in principle, "a story invented to be performed by actors on a stage in front of an audience", as Clayton Hamilton would have it?
From the English critic, I immediately passed to the director Edward Gordon Craig who affirmed the holistic nature of the theater, which was "neither the performance nor the play, neither the scenery nor the dance", but a composite of elements of action, words, color, and rhythm. At the same time, Yeats, a poet, and playwright proposed overcoming a traditional theater, concerned only with the study of characters and superficial reality, in search of a spiritually significant drama.
These discussions, whether or not we agree with their points of view, are part of a universe of artistic concerns, especially in our time of fragmentation, lack of values, and critical emptiness, and undoubtedly guide a possible criticism of the show "Hellenic". The play of the same name took its title from a book of poems, written by a woman - Silvia Jacinto, which another woman directed, after making an adaptation for the stage Miriam Fontana - and, finally, it is represented by three women - the director, Érica Rossi, and Vânia Lucas.
We believe that it couldn't be otherwise, because femininity is always present. In the book, it is observed that the author does not "appropriate" "recreate" or "re-read" Greek myths. She simply wants to engage with the essence of the feminine by engaging with these myths, either as an observer or as a participant. It will be as if she were immersed in a universe far away in time but maintaining the common bond of life with the present.
identification of/in the "eternal feminine".
The book is a complete and accomplished project. Transporting this language to the stage would have been a reckless act - like all transcreation. Miriam Fontana prepared for a long time for the undertaking and achieved a surprising result - especially for those who disregard theater performed without a previous and solid structure of dramaturgical technique.
In this case, the director opts for a merely poetic externalization. Symbolist, if you will. From a tenuous dramatic line of conduct, efficient in its simplicity, the modern woman suddenly finds herself thrown into the vortex of her own conflicts. And here there are no "crises" that guide the text, but illuminations of situations - which, in any case,
lead to "estrangement".
The characters are masks that continuously overlap and juxtapose each other. There is no typical beginning-middle-end structure, but a cyclical presentation where, technically, the interpretation, the music, and the dance also intertwine naturally,
with a technical skill that is difficult to see on our stages.
The soundtrack and the intervention of live music, the excellent performance of the three artists on stage, framed by a suggestive setting make this "Hellenic" one of the great moments of the season, deserving to be seen by all those who, as Yeats appreciates, this "mysterious art always evoking or almost evoking, through a complexity of rhythms, colors, and gestures that permeates space not as intellect, but as memory and prophecy".
SEPTEMBER 2000
Cats and Swallows
Luiz Puntel
Writer
What are the essential characteristics of a cat? That has cat whiskers, cat hair, cat paws, and cat meow, in short, it honors its feline species. And that - importance of importance! - have a deadly hatred for mice, small rodents, and ... birds! Especially the ... swallows! Correct?
Wrong! Wrong! The cat in our story has all the qualities of a cat, but it hates neither mice nor birds. On the contrary, he has sympathy for birds, he wants them too. I would say even more: he has a love for them, even more so when that swallow is called... Andorinha Sinhá!
But how can a cat, even a cat, love a swallow? And how can she, on her fluttering side, also love a cat? Aren't their immutable laws that govern feline instincts? How can a feline, fleeing the call of its race, be - no pun intended - "swinged" by a swallow from branch to branch? How can he get emotionally and lovingly involved with someone who represents the quintessential enemy of his species?
The text of our story, in fact, was written by Jorge Amado and the theme is not new. In Greek mythology, surpassing the metron - the measure - is seen as a disrespect to the gods, since it is to escape the immutable laws of the race, of the species. And breaking those ties, breaking those bonds, is calling down the divine disgrace. So it was with the forbidden love of Oedipus and Jocasta, Ares and Aphrodite, with the love of Orpheus and Eurydice, with the many unbridled loves of Zeus and the eternal pursuits of jealous Hera. If we wanted to add to the list of unfortunate love affairs and their disastrous consequences, just to focus on heterosexual loves, we would have an endless list: Lancelote and Genoveva, a drama so old, but so current, in the rich cinematographic production with Sean Conery and Richard Geere; Paolo and Francesca, there in the Divine Comedy, and Shakespeare's always remembered Romeo and Juliet.
More recently, dealing with this disproportion of animals towards their species, Pedro Bandeira shaped, in "It's forbidden to meow", the story of a dog that, fleeing its species, refused to bark, preferring to bark, to its misfortune. .. meow.
Anyway, several authors have already dealt with the theme of this yearning for freedom, although Ricardo Reis, the Greek heteronym of Fernando Pessoa, has already predicted that the only freedom that the gods grant us is to submit to their dominion and have the terrible certainty that only in the illusion of freedom does freedom exist. Therefore, if Gato Malhado, by Jorge Amado, refuses the kittens to love Andorinha Sinhá, let him be very careful because the law is the Law. And if racism and prejudice - sides of the same coin, which was even a topic at a time when UNICAMP did not need to cancel entrance exams -, contrary to popular music, do not accept that any form of love is worth it, it will not accept the poetic love of the cat for the swallow.
But why is it necessary to talk about cats and swallows and forbidden love? Because the theater group Fora do sériO is just putting on stage, every Saturday and Sunday, at 4.30 pm, until the end of February, the children's play O Gato Malhado ea Andorinha Sinhá.
The show features, not only the impeccable interpretation of Míriam Fontana and Gusto Albanez but also the wonderful visual conception of the masks and doll characters created by the group under the talented guidance of the plastic artist Jair Correia.
For sleepy Saturday and Sunday afternoons, it's worth turning off the video, gathering your children, nephews, and grandchildren, and going to the theater at Espaço Fora do sériO. Plus, you get a free Penguin draft beer. There, after the play, between drinks and alcoholic flavors, one can meditate on the seriousness of the statements that the play provokes in the spectators.
The Donkey
Neyde Veneziano
Theater Director and Researcher
"The Donkey of Fora do sériO is a vigorous work that recovers the poetry and humor of popular shows with talent and efficiency"
The Donkey
Jose Eduardo Vendramini
Theater Director
"Outside the series keeps the theatrical tradition alive in a moving way"
The Donkey
Tiche Vianna
Theater Director and Researcher
"One of the most beautiful shows of Commedia Dell'Arte I've ever seen in my life. Current, dynamic, and fun. It's about "O Asno", a brilliant realization of this group Out of the series".
Arlecchino (1988)
Alberto Guzik
Master in Theater and critic of Jornal da Tarde
"Arlecchino", directed by the "Fora do sériO" Theater Group, is a careful work of research, which results in an attractive production. Taking the figure of the Harlequin from a certain moment in Commedia Dell'Arte as the focus of the examination, Dario Fo made a delightful journey through the universe of popular actors of the Italian seventeenth century. A whole tradition of improvised, strongly physical interpretations is revisited by Fo, who captures the character's charm and critical strength in the text. "Arlecchino" shows its protagonist involved in the prototypical situations that characterize him in Commedia's Lazzi. He is the ironic, irreverent clown who will do anything for money. It deceives, it is deceived, and it has a strong erotic component and intense, destructive irreverence.
Director Neyde Veneziano handled the editing of "Arlecchino" very well. The achievement is based on a careful study of the matter treated by the text. Commedia was scrutinized by the director. The result of this serious approach is reflected on the stage, where you can see a balanced, dynamic montage with rich theatricality. The combination of circus arts and comic texts intensifies the popular character of this theater and expands the possibilities of exploring the comic. The two aspects were very well applied by "Fora do sério". The montage happily explores the scenic space; in "Arlecchino" the traditional gestures of the Commedia are combined with juggling and acrobatics, in a vivacious portrait of a world bursting with theatricality. Márcio Tadeu's costumes are conceived with intelligence, creatively reusing the traditional costumes of Commedia Dell'Arte figures. "Arlecchino" almost always obeys a precise, agile rhythm, largely determined by the very physical nature of the performance. "Gatus Mutantis",
"A Fechadura", "Os Coveiros" and especially the "Prologue", have a densely worked texture, where the scenic invention of Neyde Veneziano serves with much
resourcefulness to the author's dramaturgical invention.
Beautiful mask work by Beth Lopes, great musical preparation by Wanderley Martins, and excellent performance of the music by the cast itself. Very good also, the translation of the text.
The cast of "Arlecchino" has the necessary physical and vocal preparation. All members of the group show performance on stage. It would be unfair, however, not to highlight the performances of Ana Célia Padovan as Marcolfa, Miriam Fontana as Franceschina, and Jayme Paez as Arlequim.
Arlecchino (1988)
Clovis Garcia
Master in Theater and critic of the newspaper "O Estado de São Paulo
Intelligent choice of text by one of the greatest modern Italian playwrights, on "Commedia Dell'Arte", centering on the figure of the Harlequin, in its various aspects, according to its 16th-century stage. The grace resulting from the various blunders, the use of "Lazzi" and the updating of the sharp criticism, of "Commedia" and of the author,
make the text of great dramatic interest.
The research and understanding of both the text and the "Commedia" allowed the creation of a show faithful to the guiding principles of the "Commedia" in an updated form. The inclusion of circus techniques and acts (interacts, like the old "intermezzos") maintains fidelity, all the more so as the circus is the heir of the "Commedia" and still uses its "Lazzi". Excellent pace and visuals.
With the stage empty, only scenic elements are brought by the actors, except in the final scene where a theatrical setting is built (style of the time). Great use of technical resources, also remembering the "machines".
The costumes are excellent, with appropriate uses, colors based on beige and brown,
with a beautiful view.
Great musical direction by Wanderley Martins, and the musical performance of the actors.
In the case of theater course students, better body and vocal preparation cannot be expected. In general, they are all great comic actors, musicians, and jugglers, but Ana Célia Padovan, Gustavo Trestini's Harlequin, and Miriam Fontana deserve to be highlighted.