Brás Cubas
Adapted from Machado de Assis
Director: Paulo de Moraes
Armazém Theatre Company
Language:Performed in Portuguese, with Chinese and English subtitles

 

About Brás Cubas
"Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas" by Machado de Assis inspired this production. The book portrays Brás Cubas as an iconic, pretentious character reflecting on his life after death, revealing his failures and self-loathing. The narrative intertwines three planes: Brás's memories, his life events, and Machado de Assis's interactions. The play depicts Machado as a contemporary artist, exploring facets like slavery and city chronicling, crucial for Brazil's identity. The story delves into Brás's pursuit of fame and refusal to commit, mirroring life's incidents. The production creatively blends these elements on stage, reflecting Machado's erudition and influence on Brazil's national identity.

 

 

The theater is a visibility device: at a certain moment, we are all spectators of the same visible scene. However, the mixture of planes in the scene offers the possibility of accessing the work from a fundamentally personal vision because most of the time, not everyone sees the same things. What we perceive may remain invisible to others. And it is there—in this extremely personal experience—that perhaps the theater has the ability to illuminate our beliefs and doubts, our emotions and thoughts."

 

About Armazém Theatre Company
The Armazém Theatre Company, founded in 1987 in Londrina, Brazil, by Paulo de Moraes, has been influential for 35 years. Now based in Rio de Janeiro, it prioritizes innovative themes and forms, focusing on the art of acting, body, voice, and thought dynamics. Their unique approach immerses audiences in parallel worlds through action, word, time, and space. With a fragmented language and internal perspective, Armazém's trajectory maintains its distinct voice, earning them 100+ major Brazilian awards while embodying artistic audacity and audience engagement.

About Paulo de Moraes
Paulo de Moraes (born in 1965) is a Brazilian theatre maker. He began his work as a director, set designer and playwright in 1987, when he founded - at a very young age- the Armazém Theatre Company. Living in Rio de Janeiro, he has won the major awards of Brazilian theater, and also twice the Fringe First Award, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. His productions have been performed in South America, Europe, and Asia including original plays like "Water Stain" and "The Day Sam Died", and groundbreaking versions of classics such as Nelson Rodrigues' “All Nudity Shall be Punished”, Shakespeare's "Hamlet" and Tony Kushner's "Angels in America". For Paulo de Moraes, the theatre is an art where one should not be afraid of asking the difficult questions. The good questions, rather than the answers, still make theatre an event of social importance.

 

Cast: Sérgio Machado, Jopa Moraes, Bruno Lourenço, Isabel Pacheco, Felipe Bustamante and Lorena Lima
Musician: Ricco Viana
Dramaturgy: Maurício Arruda Mendonça
Music Director: Ricco Viana
Set Design: Carla Berri and Paulo de Moraes
Lighting Design: Maneco Quinderé
Costume Design: Carol Lobato
Movement Director: Patrícia Selonk and Paulo Mantuano
Photo and Video: Mauro Kury
Graphic Designer: Jopa Moraes
Tech Team: Mauro Kury and Regivaldo Moraes
Surtitle Operator: Patrícia Selonk