Rising to Demands: Argentine and Brazilian Theatre

My principal areas of interest are Argentine and Brazilian theatre. A fundamental difference exists between the two traditions: whereas anything particularly innovative in Argentine theatre takes place pretty much in Buenos Aires, Brazilian theatre is decentralized among five major cities (the two megalopolises, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo; and the second-tier cities of Porto Alegre, Belo Horizonte, and Curitiba), making it far more difficult to enjoy an adequate range of firsthand experiences. Of course, one can find interesting theatrical activities in other Argentine cities, and some theatre of note is found in third-tier Brazilian cities.

I wish to address two issues here regarding my dual interest, one that has to do with the difficulties of incorporating Brazilian theatre into Latin American theatre studies, and the other having to do with the fortunes of theatre in the current climate of economic and social fluctuations in both countries.

There are two forces that impede the adequate incorporation of Brazil into Latin American theatre studies. The first has to do with the continental presence of Brazil within the boundaries, both geographic and abstract, of Latin America. Since Brazil is the size of the United States, it manifests a cultural production—as it does in everything else—that is characteristic of a country of such size. Although its population is not as evenly distributed as is that of the US, it in fact benefits from the megalopolitan nature of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, and the fact that its second-tier cities are larger than the second-tier cities of the US (such as Philadelphia, Phoenix, and San Diego). Since theatre is necessarily driven by a certain concentration of potential audiences, Brazil profits from a demographic base that is broader than that of other Latin American countries. (I have in mind the extreme difficulty of a sustained theatrical activity of quality in Mexico's second city, Guadalajara, or in the second city of Argentina, Córdoba. I also recall that university theatre is often solely responsible for decent theatre in many, many communities in the US; university theatre programs in Latin America do not routinely mount theatre productions, and their students find practical experience by working with the independent theatre groups—the backbone of Latin American theatre.) As a consequence, the very vastness of theatrical activity in Brazil—probably equal or superior in number to that of the rest of Latin America put together—makes any attempt to grasp Brazilian theatre in the way in which one grasps Argentine theatre or Mexican theatre, or even Spanish-language theatre in Latin America as a whole, very daunting indeed.

Language is the other major factor. Although there are enormous similarities between Spanish and Portuguese that become immediately apparent when looking at most print media, the spoken word—the basis of theatre—makes evident the degree to which two languages that, except for the most simplified levels of conversation, are not, when spoken, mutually intelligible (although native speakers of Portuguese do have an easier time following spoken Spanish, for reasons of phonological structure). Film and television are in the same situation as theatre, although subtitles in film aid in the crossing of frontiers between the two languages; perhaps at some time, someone will experiment with staged productions accompanied by projected supertitles, as is now customary in the US (at least with opera performances). But the simple fact that most scholars trained in Latin American theatre in Spanish are unable to follow Brazilian theatre linguistically makes it difficult to engage in serious critical study. One continues to defend the proposition that Latin American theatre studies must mean near-equal fluency in both languages, but we are a long way from this level of competence. (There is also another factor that I might mention: scholars of Brazil are so used historically to working independently of Spanish-speaking Latin Americanists that many of them are uncomfortable with crossover efforts, fully aware of the enormous knowledge required to be able to speak seriously about Brazilian society.)

It is probably not very accurate to speak of any social and economic crisis at the...