A play that will stay in the memory

When the Armazem Theatre Company brought its theatrical production, Water Stain, to the Wuzhen Theatre Festival, in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province, in 2017, the Brazilian theater group received an enthusiastic reception from audiences and the shows sold out fast.

This success saw the company touring China in 2019 and it returned to the Wuzhen Theatre Festival in 2023 with Bras Cubas, which again became a smash hit with audiences.

Bras Cubas was staged in Shanghai in October, and the company made its debut in Beijing Tianqiao Performing Arts Center with the same production at the end of the month. The production was then staged in Foshan, Guangdong province.

"The performance was very Brazilian with a joyful and lively South American flair," commented a fan from Shanghai. "There was a one-person band onstage and at the end, there was a song that perfectly matched the theme. The actors also performed synchronized dances multiple times, full of energy. It was a performance with a strong sense of unity and coherence."

Another fan from Foshan commented: "The last time I saw the performance by the Brazilian company was in Wuzhen. The performance is like traditional Chinese opera style with a narrator telling the story throughout the entire show. One actor played multiple roles, embodying the characters mentioned by the narrator. The actors are all great, excelling in both singing and dancing. The musician onstage, playing the guitar, drums and keyboard, while the actors singing and dancing reflected the unique passion of South America."

According to Paulo de Moraes, director of Bras Cubas, at first, they were truly amazed by the connection that their performances established with Chinese audiences. Brazil and China are geographically far apart, and there are many cultural differences, but the director says that they share a similar sense of humor.

"We gradually realized that the sense of humor in both Brazilian and Chinese people is surprisingly similar," he says, adding that this feeling became apparent starting with their first performance in China seven years ago," he says. "Initially, we were concerned about whether we could clearly convey our ideas to Chinese audiences, but the moment we took the stage at the Wuzhen Theatre Festival, those worries vanished."

According to the director, Bras Cubas is adapted from the novel, The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas, by the late Brazilian author Machado de Assis (1839-1908). The Armazem Theatre Company, founded in 1987 and one of the most high-profile in Brazil, creatively breaks away from the original linear recollection, adopting a parallel three-line narrative structure.

The director also uses a live band with a variety of instruments to create modern, classical and soft sounds, helping the audience enter the various eras and places implied in the play.

Music becomes a bridge that connects the audience with the different periods and settings of Bras Cubas' journey, immersing them in the shifts of time and perspective that the narrative unfolds.

"In this production, we witness both the deceased Bras Cubas describing himself and the living Bras Cubas existing within each of the individual stories. Meanwhile, the author Machado de Assis makes an appearance onstage, acting both as the judge and recorder in the third narrative thread. At times, he engages in witty exchanges with Bras Cubas, and at other moments, steps out of the story to discuss the play itself," the director says.

He adds that the original novel provides deep inspiration for this play, and this rich, engaging theatrical work expands the possibilities of the original novel.

The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas is widely regarded as one of the most important novels in Brazilian literary history. Although it was written in the late 19th century, its themes and form remain eternally relevant. The lead character, Bras Cubas, comes from a wealthy family and was expected to achieve much, but his life is marked by failure and insecurity. He is a figure of self-importance, arrogance and the embodiment of failure, ultimately revealing the process by which Brazil's economic elite came into being.

"As a Brazilian artist, I believe this is an important way to understand how we have developed into what we are today, and also a path to explore our future direction," says the director. "Turning all of this into theater, transforming it into stage action, is a challenge I have been eager to face.

"Theater is a visual world: At specific moments, the audience shares the same scene," he adds. "However, the combination of these scenes allows for the possibility of experiencing the work from a personal perspective, because not everyone sees the same content at the same time. What we perceive may be invisible to others. In this highly individualized experience, theater may have the power to illuminate our beliefs, doubts, emotions and thoughts."

Born in 1965 in Brazil, De Moraes began his career in 1987 as a director, set designer and playwright. In the same year he founded the company.

Based in Rio de Janeiro, he has won numerous awards in the Brazilian theater scene. Under his leadership, the company has won more than 100 Brazilian theater awards, establishing it as a national treasure.

"I was passionate about acting. However, the sudden death of my previous company's director — who was also very young — made me feel that I needed to explore directing. I gathered a group of actors younger than myself and founded this theater," the director recalls.