I ran acrossed an article that may be taking Shakesperean philospophy too far.
‘Open sewer’ becomes a stage
Fri Apr 7, 2006 8:27 AM ETBy Fernanda Ezabella
SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) – If all the world’s a stage, a Brazilian theater company sees Sao Paulo’s filthy, stinking River Tiete as the perfect venue for a play about the bleak life of a poor working family.
The Vertigem company is putting on its a latest performance using a flotilla of boats and the riverbank as its stage. The audience tags along in its own boat.
The Tiete, which cuts through the north of the world’s third-largest city, is considered an open sewer by the people who live there.
The lanes of a highway run on either bank, choked with cars, buses and trucks. Warehouses, factories, shopping malls and shantytowns lie alongside the road.
The water is an oily stretch of garbage, debris and industrial pollution. It is also on the route into Sao Paulo from the international airport, giving tourists and residents alike a glimpse of the grittier side of Brazil.
For Vertigem, it is the perfect backdrop for its play “BR-3″ about the life and hard times of a poor working family.
“The city’s relationship to the river is one of aversion. They want to pass fast and ignore it. But the river shows the dirt we produce,” said actor Sergio Siviero. “We tell a story about an unknown Brazil in a unknown place.”
“BR-3″ mixes suspense, nudity and even a hallucinogenic drugs trip to tell the story of a family who move from the construction of Brasilia, the modernistic capital, in the 1950s to the Sao Paulo working-class neighborhood of Brasilandia, to the jungle city of Brasileia in remote Acre state.
The audience is made up of 60 people. They follow the performance along the river for six miles in a three-deck boat, passing under five big bridges that have none of the elegance of those of London or Paris.
The 13 actors use five small boats. They also perform scenes on the river bank, barrages, and big drainage pipes.
And the hotter the night is, the worse the smell of the water is. Over 2 1/2 hours, spectators see plastic bottles floating in the brown waters along with plastic foam and car tires. Huge Carnival sculptures are part of the official scenery.
The theater group, which has previously staged plays in an abandoned hospital and a prison, took measures to keep the crew healthy, including as vaccinations for hepatitis, malaria and tetanus.
One crew member fell into the river at the end of the play last weekend. He went to hospital and doctors put him under observation.
“It was so disgusting”, said audience member Mariana Galante, 25. “The guy stayed there, under the water, for a few seconds, and then appeared so stunned.
“But apart from that, it was an amazing experience.”
I have to say that it takes a barave person to perform and do so Charecter style. And in this case with a strong stomach.
I’m brazilian, I live in São Paulo and have already seen BR-3.
I work withg theatre, I know many theatrical groups and I’ve seen lots of great presentations of great plays written by great writers, but I can assure you: the experience of being there on the cold Tietê river is undesctriptible. It’s brilliant!