Dublin Theatre Festival Artistic Director Willie White introduces a highlight of this year's eagerly-anticipated DTF programme, which runs from 28th September -15th October.
What do you know about Brazil, a two centuries old state of 216 million people?
I suspect that until recently for many Irish people, me included, that knowledge covered some legendary footballers, famous landmarks, notorious politicians and the Amazon.
However, Brazilian superstar Anitta headlining the Pride Block Party last year party was an indication that things have changed.
A feature of Dublin's growing diversity over past decades has been the flourishing of its Brazilian community. The city is home to thousands of Brazilians and the northside’s inner city, where I live, has many Brazilian businesses, from bakeries, to barbers, bicycle shops, restaurants and grocery stores.
In Ireland we are understandably proud of our culture and most comfortable in the English language or in Irish. One of the aims of Dublin Theatre Festival is to invite people to be more curious about other cultures and I have long had an ambition to invite Brazilian artists to Dublin, bringing Irish and Brazilian audiences together.
follows the struggle of three Brazillian women for their community, their land,
their freedom and their culture (Pic: Juliana Franca)
My first research trip didn’t go so well. I was at a festival in São Paulo in March 2020 when Covid hit. Not having any idea of what was to come, I had disregarded people’s concerns in the lead up to the trip and now began to feel acutely how far away from home I was. I hightailed it back on the first available flight as life locked down everywhere.
I started to bake sourdough, of course, but one of my other lockdown projects was to learn Brazilian Portuguese, which is quite different in accent and vocabulary to 'Portuguese’ Portuguese. Having prepared for my previous trip using a well-known online language learning tool, I found that it hadn’t equipped me very well for communicating with people in real life.
I opted instead for online classes with the Portuguese Language Centre, based in Ireland. There I mostly met people who had a Brazilian namorado or namorada and wanted to learn to speak to the in-laws but they accepted my bona fides nonetheless.
presidents, portraying a disinherited generation yearning to reinvent itself'.
(Pic: Renato Mangolin)
The classes, along with bingeing on Netflix series, really helped me to advance in the language. On a return visit to São Paulo in 2022 my newly acquired intermediate proficiency made the trip much more fruitful and increased my ambition to bring large-scale works to Dublin.
Last October I turned onto North Great George’s Street with artist Renata Carvalho and the team from her Manifesto Transpofágico, which had been playing at the festival. I was bringing our guests for a swim at Forty Foot and fish and chips on the pier, when we came across thousands of people queuing around the block to vote in the first round of Brazil’s presidential election.
They were amazed to see how many of their compatriots there were and excitedly took their phones out to film the scene for people at home. We had a good time in Dun Laoghaire and the election went to a run off, but that image stayed with me.
Skip to one year later and we will open this year’s Dublin Theatre Festival with Zona Franca, a performance created in the wake of the political change in Brazil, at the O’Reilly Theatre, right beside where that line wound around the block.
It’s rare that performing arts respond so quickly to current events. Zona Franca is about the aspirations of Brazilian youth at the point of transition between presidents, portraying a disinherited generation yearning to reinvent itself. It mixes passinho, dancinha, voguing, samba, hip-hop and other styles of urban dance to express a thirst for life and a desire for freedom.
At the piece’s premiere in Marseille earlier this month, just days after the riots that had convulsed France, the atmosphere was thrilling. The audience gave a sustained standing ovation to the ten performers who mixed exuberant dancing with humour, explosions of colour and occasional moments of darkness.
The day has come!
— Dublin Theatre Festival (@DubTheatreFest) July 25, 2023
Dublin Theatre Festival Programme 2023 is now LIVE.
Browse the programme, book your tickets and be a part of #DTF23
🎟 Priority booking is open at 12pm
👉 Link to full programme below
📢 General sale opens 9 Aughttps://t.co/ClmYUmHlcr#DTF23 pic.twitter.com/eiIyFpFbQx
As I walked out into the balmy Marseille night, I was so excited that audiences in Dublin would get to see this show. Along with another Brazilian piece, After the Silence by Christiane Jatahy, it will give a rich and expressive insight into the culture of our friends and neighbours.
I look forward to audiences discovering these and other international works this autumn, along with many Irish premieres, in one of our most ambitious programmes in years. Aproveite o show*!
*Enjoy the show!
The Dublin Theatre Festival runs from 28th September -15th October 2023 - find out more about this year's programme here.
