The Modern Brazilian Stage by David George (review)

532 Book Reviews DAVID GEORGE. The Modern Brazilian Stage. Austin: University of Texas Press 1992. pp. xvii, 176. Three plays and the companies which produced them - Os Comediantes' Bridal Gown, Teatro Oficina's The Candle King, Grupo Macunaima's Nelson 2 Rodrigues - stand as the poles between which David George strings his informative yet lackluster review of the Brazilian theater scene over the last 50 years or so. Such subjects as the strong tradition of a comedy of manners in Brazil, the Eurocentric elitism of the Teatro Brasiliero de Comedia (TBC) in the 1950s, the efforts of the Teatro de Arena under Jose Renato and Augusto Boal to "Brazilianize" theater in the 1960s, the controversial 1970 residency of the Living Theater, and the on-again off-again role of state censorship all receive attention, making clear that at every turn the evolution of theater has raised questions of national identity. The span of George's study is neatly bookended by the "epochal stagings" of works by Nelson Rodrigues, "the most revolutionary and challenging figure in Brazilian dramaturgy ." (128) In December 1943, Os Comediantes debuted Rodrigues's Bridal Gown (Vestido de Noiva), an expressionistic montage of hallucinations and memories of a woman on her deathbed following an automobile accident. In its innovative violation of commercial theater conventions (taboo themes, complex staging and lighting effects, non-linear structure), the production generated widespread debate and excitement , effectively marking the inception of art theater in Brazil. In 1984, Grupo Macunaima consolidated their position as the leading company of the 1980s in compressing two Rodrigues plays into an evening of theater titled Nelson 2 Rodrigues. George credits Macunaima with creating "a total theatrical language comprised of a ritual-processional style of movement, cinematic visual imagery, a vast array of sound effects, and an acting method that aims to reproduce the language of the unconscious." (142) Between these two milestones stands the Teatro Oficina's production of Oswald de Andrade's The Candle King (0 Rei de Vela), a play so anarchically ahead of its time when written in 1933 that it had to wait for the more turbulent, more tolerant 1960s to see the stage. The play transposes the story ofAbelard and Heloise to the Brazilian coffee aristocracy during the Depression and renders it ala Jarry's Ubu Roi. In 1967, the play's double displacement, by virtue of its setting during the Vargas era of the 1930S and its kitschy, grotesque, and pornographic style, allowed Teatro Oficina to avoid the censor while staging the playas a metaphorical protest against the worsening military dictatorship following the 1964 coup. George divides his study into six chapters, which alternate between a decade by decade overview of important developments (mostly an account of influential companies , their origins, leaders, key productions, and critical reception) and a thematic analysis of the three exemplary works. This macro/micro rhythm can be an effective strategy for getting a fix on something as amorphous yet specific as a nation's theater, but as executed here it leaves the reader grasping at straws. The 'macro' chapters offer a wealth of information on the history of theater in Brazil which takes for granted the reader's knowledge of its larger political, historical, and cultural context. The "micro" chapters, despite considerable effort, fail to capture the essence of the play and perfor- Book Reviews 533 mance at hand. From a cynically capitalist North American point of view, the continued use of reviewers' quotes printed in the programs of the plays under discussion becomes suspicious after awhile. As a feint to critical rigor, aspects of Jung, Eliade, and Bakhtin are applied to the plays, but more as topical solutions than incisive analytical tools. George is more concerned with charting the history of theatrical events than examining the cultural and political tug-of-war which shaped them. Although thorough in citing foreign influences and stylistic trends in Brazilian dramaturgy, he never sees fit to configure his history as a dialectic of ideas, ideological or aesthetic. Several possible paradigms present themselves. For example, George's discussion makes clear that much innovative Brazilian theater stems from amateur groups and that the tension between amateurism and professionalism has propelled its development...