Carnivalizing Carnival-Land in the Urban Sertões of Teatro Oficina

Abstract

The imaginary around the “Canudos War” (1896-1897) as paradigmatic of others that perpetuate the extreme socio-spatial exclusion of contemporary Brazil was a central theme of Teatro Oficina’s Os Sertões (2002-2007). This five-part theatrical production was based on the literary epic of the same title (1902), which re-envisioned the northeastern Brazilian backlands, redeeming its subjects and denouncing the Canudos War as a massacre. The Os Sertões cycle allegorized the struggle of the landless, the urban squatters, as well as Teatro Oficina’s own fight against the gentrification of its neighborhood. Through an analysis of the performance tactics and the various texts that informed the making of Os Sertões, this article locates performance’s spatiality and its potential for enacting social agency as intrinsically connected to the body and sensorial knowledge. (CM, Article in English)