Appropriating Shakespeare in Brazil: Cultural Anthropophagy in Nós do Morro’s Dream

Abstract

Cultural Anthropophagy, a pioneering concept developed in 1928 by the Brazilian Modernist poet and thinker Oswald de Andrade (1890–1954) in his Manifesto Antropófago, is a fundamental approach for understanding the aesthetic practices of Brazilian collaborative theater groups and their work on Shakespeare. The notion of anthropophagic appropriation is anchored on the idea of creative freedom, assimilating rather than rejecting foreign artistic legacies and mixing them with Brazilian culture—a process which allows the co-existence of self and other in a new interactive relationship. The theater group Nós do Morro [We from the Hillside], based at the Vidigal favela in Rio de Janeiro, approaches Shakespeare from an anthropophagic perspective, reimagining his plays through the lens of local and global traditions. The present essay addresses Nós do Morro’s first Shakespearean production, Sonho de uma noite de verão: uma intromissão do Nós do Morro no mundo de Shakespeare (2004), which highlighted the communal dimensions of the troupe’s theatrical activities, mainly issues of social transformation and ecological concerns. Nós do Morro’s Dream staged a metatheatrical invasion of the performance by proletarian waste collectors from the theatre company’s 2003 production, titled Burro sem rabo [Tail-less Donkey]. The waste collectors invaded the Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, the elitist downtown theater where Dream was taking place, to kidnap the Shakespearean mechanicals and take on their roles themselves. This inventive device symbolically and literally constitutes an act of exchange and sharing, expressing their intent to approach Shakespeare according to their own aesthetic agenda.