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Black Theatre in Brazil

Author(s): Oscar Fernández


Source: Educational Theatre Journal, Vol. 29, No. 1 (Mar., 1977), pp. 5-17
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3206497
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OSCAR FERNANDEZ

BlackTheatrein Brazil

After many difficult years of frustration, blacks in the United States have finally
been recognized and represented in 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 States
have counterparts in today's Brazil, but prospects there are complicated further by
basic social and political conditions which differ greatly from those prevailing here.
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's play No Place to be Somebody, a light-skinned
black man has a hard time finding work as a black and is rejected by whites when
they discover he is, genetically, a black. In Brazil, descent and ethnic background are
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 referring to 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 very
black-skinned tend to stand apart and 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 can be 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 ETJ in 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,March 1977

Gilberto Freyre, known for his sociological studies, indicates that early in this
century it was pointed out that in Brazil the practice has been to make it easier for a
black to pass as a white than to hinder him, and Freyre goes on to affirm that race
influences the status of a Brazilian less than do class and region.' Marvin Harris,
Donald Pierson, Charles Wagley and others who have addressed themselves to this
matter have expressed similar conclusions. Contributing over 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 by
abolitionists to further their cause against 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 may
ordinarily rise socially as far as their talents and accomplishments will take them, is
largely a product of the period since World War I. Obviously, this striking change
in circumstances owes much to the long-standing proclivity of Brazilians generally
to 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 comparable in degree, nor is hatred as deep or prejudice
as strong in Brazil as in the United States.4 This is not to imply that there is no
distinctly racial prejudice in 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, a
study 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 have
tried, 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 / BLACKTHEATREIN BRAZIL

heritage. For them, the word negro is preferredto preto, as symbolic of the acceptance
and promotion of negritude, or negro culture.GThus, in the first three decades of this
century, in addition to more general and academically oriented sociological and
ethnic gatherings (as, for example, the First Convention on Afro-Brazilian Studies
organized by Gilberto Freyre and held in Recife in 1933), other more activist-minded
groups have also made their appearance. Among these are included the Brazilian
Black Front of So Paulo and the Negro Club for Social Culture. But it was not until
the establishment of the Negro Experimental Theatre in 1944 (Teatro Experimental
do Negro), often referredto as T.E.N., or TEN, that such efforts made themselves felt
in many circles of Brazilianlife.

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 appeared among 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 curse of slavery
and the abolitionist cause are found as themes in certain productions, especially note-
worthy being two plays by the eminent novelist Jos4 de Alencar.7 These, however,
did not meet with a favorable reception, as the theatre public's interest was along
other 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 1920o
Charles Gilpin 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 in
Brazil.

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 he
pondered the incongruity and injustice of the dramatic presentation he had seen, the
more he felt compelled to do something about it. He also realized that, ironically, his
own country, which boasted of racial equality 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 United
States.
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 without
its 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 them
felt 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
integral existence of the Negro impossible as far as spirit and culture are concerned."1''
It was under these circumstances that the Negro Experimental Theatre was born
in 1944. In the words of Abdias, its founder, "what was proposed was 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-Brazilian and 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 opposition
manifested itself, as in an anonymous newspaper article objecting to a black theatre
in Brazil where, contrary to the situation in the United States, prejudice did not exist,
and where such practices might propagate segregation.'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 experience was its participation in 1944 in a student produc-
tion of Stela Leonardos's Palmares, 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.
9 Not 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.
10 Abdias 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.
9 / BLACKTHEATREIN BRAZIL

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 national
plays 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 racial problem, although much of what happens to Brutus Jones is
due to his own failings as an individual. The play is a work of great dramatic poten-
tial and it provides possibilities for multiple theatrical effects. The production was
received well, 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 Municipal
Theatre in 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 attracted to each other, as
young adults grow divided by their awareness of their difference in color, and who
as mature adults are reunited in marriage when 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"7 and at the limitations of the basically amateur actors and stage personnel,
there was general acceptanceand encouragement for the ensemble.
By the time T.E.N. was ready for another production in 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 allegorical
Biblical 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 is
brought 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.productions


of 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 para
Brancos (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, March 1977

less son who wants to break out and explore the world is captivated by the stranger
and 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. Later he
returns poor, humble, calm, somewhat stoic, reconciled with himself and to living
the 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 apparent poetic 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 play
lacked. It was written by Joaquim Ribeiro, erudite linguist and folklorist, and its title
Aruanda refers to a sort of never-never land, the realm of the Black Gods. Recalling
somewhat 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 interests
leave 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 pleasures with her mystic lover in Aruanda, he decides, instead, to disfigure
her-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 repeated in a number of productions: the orixds,
mnacumbaand 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 broader range of socio-political objectives
announced 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 supported a 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 Brazilian Negro 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 under the name of Brasilianait performedin Europe,as well as in Brazil.
Theatre-related activities continued. At a second anniversary festival in 1946
scenes 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 is
Made.
On 27 March, 1949, the company presented Jos6 de 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 young
black 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 fugitive
black activist, maintains a wild faith in the protection afforded by 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 problems presented in this
pessimistic 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 black theatre in Brazil, however, was to be a recognizable genre with a promising
future, it would have to take the step its counterpart had taken in the United States
and produce some black dramatists. Again Abdias came to the rescue. His SortilIgio
(Sortilege) was the first play by a black to be performed by T.E.N. Completed in 1951,
it was not to be produced until 1957, and then only after a bout with government
censors.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,March 1977

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~gio was 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's Hands). 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 predicament
of 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 appear in 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
tradition in Brazil.
In Abdias's Sortilhgio, the theme of racial prejudice stands 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't you noticed how whites look at you? With the air of masters?"25Near
the end of the play he recapitulates, "I know there was 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.
13 / BLACKTHEATREIN BRAZIL

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 play
was a bold stroke and that it had an important impact on Brazilian theatre. The con-
troversy that it engendered is of historical significance.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
de Canaan (Canaan's Curse), wrote what he claimed to be one of the first
Maldi;io
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 even
on 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 lover
eliminates 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 ridiculous at times in action and dialogue. I have no record of its performance.
Except for Anjo Negro, a reprint of a play which had appeared some 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 story
of 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 girl
he 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 seeks
vengeance. 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 Brazilian
Negro"; 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 chosen
people, 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 sacrifice and the Sisyphean efforts and contributions
of its mentor and factotum Abdias do Nascimento, it never attained the stature or the
following of the Negro Ensemble Company 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 various
levels. 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.30 One 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 Janeiro concluded 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
Brasileiro in 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
more important of these.
As was true in the United States until recently, the bulk of what has been done in
black drama in Brazil has 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. See
Revista de Teatro, July-August, 1971, p. 11.
32 Luiz A. Costa Pinto, O Negro no Rio de Janeiro (Sio Paulo, 1953), P. 278.
15 / BLACKTHEATREIN 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 children born in his image. Desiring
a white son for herself, she prevails upon her husband's blind half brother. Tragedy
continues 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 planned
to do with a son, but rather favored and loved, after he blinds her at an early age
so 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 young
woman will replace her. Finally, after insisting that for the first time she really
loves 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, among other 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 portrayed as black and says to the jokester who is surprised
at finding him so dark, "You are full of racial prejudice. . . . 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 far
beyond that taken by other writers.
Perhaps best known is the gay but sad, real but romantic work of Vinicius de
Morais, Orfeu da a modern black incarnation of the Orpheus-Eurydice
Concei;io,
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 animated film version Orfeu Negro (BlackOrpheus).
I was particularly impressed by two unusual volumes of plays which appeared in
1968.34 They 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 provided
to 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 apparent
regional 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], March 1977

"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 matters
little as long as the body can dance like an orixd and is dressed like one."35 In spite
of the favorable reception and praise given these works, she has evidently had diffi-
culty getting them produced.
An appearance which momentarily attracted attention was that of the Grupo de
ACio (Action Group) of Rio de Janeiro. As stated in one of its program notes, 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."36 Furthermore, 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 dos
Santos. Sponsored by an office of the State of Guanabara, its first venture in 1966
was 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 objectives
was 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.:"7The 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
company had not made another selection."8
The 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 incongruity
revealed 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 voicing
of an objection to the appearance there 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 ... Falamos Nds (And Now... It's Our Turn to Speak). First performed 1971
in the Art Museum's Theatre, it is a mixed literary-dramatic researched concoction
of black history, customs, and life from African origins to contemporary times. The
piece includes music, songs, dance, and poetry readings-reflecting film and tele-
vision techniques and themes, including the projection of 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.
Eduardo de Oliveira e Oliveira, "Black Theatre," Literary Supplement, Estado de Saio Paulo,
a9
25 July, 1970.
17 / BLACKTHEATREIN BRAZIL
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Abdiasdo Nascimento,founderof the NegroExperimentalTheatreof Brazil.Photoby Frank


Johnston. Reprinted courtesy of The Washington Post.

In summary, black theatre in Brazil has not experienced the development and
success that its counterpart has enjoyed in the United States (especially in recent
years). Except for the gallant try made by the Negro ExperimentalTheatre, there has
been no sustained drive on any other front, and spasmodic bursts of apparent prog-
ress have soon faded into limbo. Nor have any excellent black dramatists appeared
on the scene. Certainly the extreme control exercised by 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 reappear from time to time in Brazil, it will probably not,
in the foreseeable future, reach the level of attainment seen in the United States.

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