Estéticas do engajamento no teatro brasileiro contemporâneo: o projeto poético-político da Companhia do Latão e do Bando de Teatro Olodum.

Abstract

This thesis examines and compares the artistic-political work undertaken by Latão Company, located in the city of São Paulo, and Olodum Theater Group, in Salvador, in order to circumscribe the scenic poetics developed by both collectives as manifestations of engaged theater in Brazil. Here, the expression aesthetics of engagement denotes the ever specific way in which artists establish a certain commitment to a given reality, developing an artistic form compatible with accepted ethical ideals. The main corpus of this research comprises the dramas Auto dos bons tratos, by Latão Company, and Relato de uma guerra que (não) acabou, by Olodum Group, both staged in 2002, besides testimonies of the members of the groups about creative process, recordings of the assemblies, interviews, and theoretical texts published by the directors and actors. Based on the interpretation of this material, the thesis analyzes the trajectory of the collectives, in dialogue with the main manifestations of the theater of resistance of the twentieth century, compares the creation process behind the cited pieces, examines the work developed with the public and the performance of the artists in their respective communities and investigates the way the groups represent the Brazilian society, observing the scene as an alternative space of rewriting of the history and memory of the country. By reflecting about the paths covered by Latão Company and Olodum Group, this study aims at giving visibility to a tendency of the engaged theater today, marked by the anti-illusionist interpretation of reality, by the scene as a promoter of collective experiences and by the formulation of poetics based on identity affirmations.