playwrights-from-brazil

"O cheiro de cravo, a cor de canela, eu vim de longe vim ver Gabriela."

"we, the kids and I, have fallen in love with theater's power to teach. Truth. Or lies. You choose, as Boal reminds us."

"We are all actors: being a citizen is not living in society, it is changing it."

"When we look beyond appearances, we see oppressors and oppressed people, in all societies, ethnic groups, genders, social classes and casts; we see an unfair and cruel world. We have to create another world because we know it is possible. But it is up to us to build this other world with our hands and by acting on the stage and in our own life."

"To resist, it is not enough to say No – it is necessary to desire!"

"We must all do theatre – to find out who we are, and to discover who we could become."

"Biographies smack of the end, the final utterances. Mission accomplished. I, by contrast, am always at the start of some new path or other. I want more. More, more. I am given to excess. It would be awkward to talk about myself: in what I do, the important thing is the deed, not the doer. When all is said and done, who am I? What use am I?"

"Theatre has nothing to do with buildings or other physical constructions. Theatre — or theatricality — is the capacity, this human property which allows man to observe himself in action, in activity. The self-knowledge thus acquired allows him to be the subject (the one who observes) of another subject (the one who acts). It allows him to imagine variations of his action, to study alternatives. Man can see himself in the act of seeing, in the act of acting, in the act of feeling, the act of thinking. Feel himself feeling, think himself thinking."

"Wouldn’t it be wonderful to see a dance piece where the dancers danced in the first act and in the second showed the audience how to dance? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to see a musical where in the first act the actors sang and in the second we all sang together?...This is...how artists should be—we should be creators and also teach the public how to be creators, how to make art, so that we may all use that art together."

"In truth the Theatre of the Oppressed has no end, because everything which happens in it must extend into life….The Theatre of the Oppressed is located precisely on the frontier between fiction and reality – and this border must be crossed. If the show starts in fiction, its objective is to become integrated into reality, into life. Now in 1992, when so many certainties have become so many doubts, when so many dreams have withered on exposure to sunlight, and so many hopes have become as many deceptions – now that we are living through times and situations of great perplexity, full of doubts and uncertainties, now more than ever I believe it is time for a theatre which, at its best, will ask the right questions at the right times. Let us be democratic and ask our audiences to tell us their desires, and let us show them alternatives. Let us hope that one day – please, not too far in the future – we’ll be able to convince or force our governments, our leaders, to do the same; to ask their audiences – us – what they should do, so as to make this world a place to live and be happy in – yes, it is possible – rather than just a vast market in which we sell our goods and our souls. Let’s hope. Let’s work for it!"

"When does a session of The Theatre of the Oppressed end? Never — since the objective is not to close a cycle, to generate a catharsis, or to end a development. On the contrary, its objective is to encourage autonomous activity, to set a process in motion, to stimulate transformative creativity, to change spectators into protagonists. And it is precisely for these reasons that the Theatre of the Oppressed should be the initiator of changes the culmination of which is not the aesthetic phenomenon but real life."

"Theatre is a form of knowledge; it should and can also be a means of transforming society. Theatre can help us build our future, rather than just waiting for it."

"The Theatre of the Oppressed is theatre in this most archaic application of the word. In this usage, all human beings are Actors (they act!) and Spectators (they observe!)."

"In its most archaic sense, theatre is the capacity possessed by human beings—and not by animals—to observe themselves in action. Humans are capable of seeing themselves in the act of seeing, of thinking their emotions, of being moved by their thoughts. They can see themselves here and imagine themselves there; they can see themselves today and imagine themselves tomorrow. This is why humans are able to identify (themselves and others) and not merely to recognise."

"I believe in democracy, but in real democracy, not a phony democracy in which just powerful people can speak. For me, in a democracy everyone speaks."

"It is forbidden to walk on the grass. It is not forbidden to fly over the grass."

"To be the best in the world in anything, even 'long distance spitting', implies a grave, heavy and suffocating responsibility."

"Love is eternal. If it ends, it wasn't love."

"Man finds happiness only in the superfluous. Under communism, he has only the essentials. How abominable and ridiculous!"

"Husbands shouldn't be the last to know. Husbands should never know!"

"To love is to be faithful to those who cheat on us."

"I envy stupidity, stupidity is eternal."

"Every shy person is a potential sex offender."

"If life turns her back on you, grab her ass."

"Money buys everything, even true love."

"The audience will only truly respect you when they have no idea what is going on."

"I won't stand for censorship, not even from Jesus Christ."

"Any individual is greater than the Milky Way."

"All women like a beating."

"Not all women like a beating. Only the normal ones."

"The young have all the same flaws adults do. Plus one: immaturity."

"Memory is a swindler, a forger emeritus of facts and figures."

"Until the day when a wise black man can become our ambassador in Paris, we will forever be a pre-Brazil."""

"A thunderous boo is one thousand times stronger, nobler, and more powerful than a standing ovation. Admiration corrupts."

"Saturday is an illusion."

"The bed is a metaphysical piece of furniture."

"In soccer, the blindest player is the one who sees nothing but the ball."

"I am, and have always been, a pornographic angel."

"The keyhole is my lens as a writer."

"To save the audience we must fill the stage with murderers, adulterers and madmen; in short, we must fire a salvo of monsters at them. They are our monster which we will temporarily free ourselves from only to face another day."

"Only the prophets see the obvious."

"Adulthood does not exist. Man is an eternal child."

"Unanimity is always stupid."

"Sex education should only be taught by veterinarians."

"Love is impossible without bite marks."

"It's very hard not to be a scoundrel nowadays. Everywhere there are pressures that work towards our personal and collective debasement."

"I only believe in those who can still blush."

"Human beings are blind to their own faults. In the movies, villains never proclaim that they are villains. Nor do idiots say that they are idiots. Our faults lie within us, active and fierce, but unconfessed. I've never seen a man walk downstage and announce, his head held high, "Ladies and gentleman, I'm a scumbag!""

"The greatest master of South American fiction, Machado de Assis"

"Machado de Assis is almost certainly the greatest of all Portuguese-language novelists. He is also a novelist far ahead of his time. There is little in the twentieth-century novel that his subtle, ingenious and sardonic technical procedures do not anticipate. His style – elegant, cool, always restrained – is unsurpassed in the Portuguese language."