Das Entranhas d'Os Sertões, o Oficina: Uma viagem pela encenação de Os Sertões, pelo Teatro Oficina, de São Paulo

Between 2002 and 2006, José Celso Martinez Correia, the extraordinary director of São Paulo's Teatro Oficina, produced a five part version of Os Sertões, based on the Brazilian literary masterpiece from the beginning of the twentieth century. The author, Euclides da Cunha, compiled the work after witnessing first hand, as a journalist, the destruction of the town of Canudos, which was blamed on an army brigade. The village of Canudos is situated in the far west of Bahia and was once inhabited by the pious leader Antonio Conselheiro and his followers. Mistaken for anti-republican guerrilla fighters, Conselheiro and his followers were victims of a vicious massacre, despite their long and valiant resistance. In Martinez Correa's Os Sertões, this saga is narrated in great style, with a revolutionary spirit that characterizes the struggle that he and his troupe have been fighting against a major capitalist entrepreneur who would like to construct a mall in the same neighborhood that is home to Teatro Oficina. The exuberant performances of these plays are faithful to Oficina's tradition, one of irreverence, daring aesthetic experimentation, and Dionysian communion between actors and audience. Adding up to 36 hours of performance, this version of Os Sertões by Teatro Oficina was one of the most important theatrical events of this decade.