Tentative Transgressions: Homosexuality, AIDS, and the Theater in Brazil

Chapter 3. Beyond Evasiveness

Seeking to apply the theories of transgression discussed in the introductory materials, this chapter situates the performative and transgressive aspects of theatrical practice in the historical context of a dramatic milieu that saw significant changes in the second half of the twentieth century. In the politically repressive but artistically vibrant period extending from the late 1960s to the early 1980s, the homosexual camp finally secured a cultural stronghold from which to counter one of the defining traits of Brazilian drama since its inception; theater in Brazil had always been a matter of contrary and exclusionary representations, with the colonizer representing the colonized, the catechizer the catechized, the children of the landholding slave owners the slaves. Throughout the formative period of Brazilian society, those in power showed little concern for whether or how the country’s disenfranchised were being represented on stage or otherwise. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Brazilian theater seemed to be producing, for the first time in its history, a wave of more authentic and relevant depictions of sexual difference and dissidence. That such changes were occurring as Brazilian theater lived one of its most electrifying periods is hardly surprising; what is surprising is that all of this was taking place at a time of harsh political repression with serious limitations to freedom of expression and civil rights in general. By that time, a key feature of the representation of homosexual transgression in the Brazilian theater—namely, its cautious nature, its tentativeness —was beginning to be seriously questioned. Western society had by then accepted the emergence of transgression as central to the modern experience of otherness. As recent advances in mass communications made it possible for Brazil’s then-expanding middle class to be quickly aware of 83 chapter 3 Beyond Evasiveness the latest developments in European and North American art and culture, timid and—worse—prejudiced portrayals of transgression began to give way to braver depictions that challenged the censorship apparatus put in place by the military. Such recently secured space allowed for a more honest exploration—if not a true crossing—of difference and its barriers, and the range of new possibilities opened up by younger playwrights made possible a freer theatrical investigation of the patterns that make up the framework of experience in modern Brazil. Still, this breakthrough was tempered by the fact that a number of these productions succumbed to the tensions and contradictions encountered along the perilous course of pursuing a market without losing their transgressive edge. Resisting hegemonic practices while fending off increasingly alluring calls to cooptation proved too exacting for a number of these productions, and as a result much of their transgressive punch was lost. To a large extent these shortcomings are related to the inability to problematize the heterosexual–homosexual duality, the atividade–passividade opposition described in the first chapter. Failing to transcend the misguided dichotomies described by Richard Parker and others, these more facile plays (notably Greta Garbo and As tias) fall short of real innovation and contribute instead to the perpetuation of old stereotypes. The more successful of these works, on the other hand, are those that explore the ambigusexuality in Brazilian culture. As explained in the introductory chapter , Rommel Mendès-Leite’s notion of ambigusexuality (1993: 279–80n. 3) is rooted in an understanding of sexuality as a culturally and historically defined manifestation that “begins with the symbolisation of physiological data . . . transmitted by the process which leads to socialisation.” Ambigusexuality , for Mendès-Leite, is detected at three different levels—role, interpretation, performance—linking the social actor or sexual individual to her or his character; the diversity of these three positions is directly dependent on the fluidity of social roles in a given society. The fluidity of homosocial relations is particularly well represented in the works of dramatists such as Zé Vicente, Naum Alves de Sousa, and Mauro Rasi, who have offered innovative theatrical manipulations of the ambiguous sexual inflections in the everyday performances of social actors in Brazil. The Coming of Zé Vicente Performing ambigusexuality entailed the staging of an exploration of the constitution of homoerotic desire, resorting to a duplicity that often 84 Tentative Transgressions welcomes an element of risk. Zé Vicente’s play O assalto (1969, Assault) is a suitable place to begin examining this element of risk. But first, it is important to note that two productions mentioned in...