A Note on Brazilian Agitprop

In 1963, during the Cuban crisis, several playwrights in Rio de Janeiro called a meeting to write a script: The Blockade of Intervention: An Indictment. The following afternoon some students, workers, and artists from the Popular Center of Culture of the National Student Union rehearsed the script hurriedly, and performed it that night before a large crowd gathered in front of the Municipal Theatre in the heart of the city. The play opened twenty-four hours after it was written. The Blockade of Intervention: An Indictment was one of the most important manifestations of popular theatre—Brazil's “theatre of agitation.” It belongs to a large repertory of plays, which include Patria o muerte, Cuba s, Yankee no, and others which deal with international politics. This theatre of agitation also includes small “raids” made by theatrical brigades during special occasions. For example, during, a political campaign a group of actors meet on a corner and begin arguing about politics to the point of threatening physical violence; people gather around them and the group suddenly begins an improvised performance that deals with the most urgent political issues

Art · Indictment · Intervention (counseling · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Visual arts · Brazilian cultural history and politics · History · History, Culture, and Society · Law · Medicine

• Between ‘Artivism’ and ‘Actionism’

  Open Access•Fabrizio Massini•Performance Research•2024

  Add to list