The Theater II of the Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil Rio de Janeiro (CCBB RJ) will host the national premiere of the musical show on the night of March 2 Salvador, Nightfall and it’s Carnival, starring actor Paulo Verlings and directed by Vilma Melo. The season will run until April 2 and is sponsored by Banco do Brasil. Prioritizing public accessibility, in addition to places for wheelchair users, there will be a session with a Libras interpreter. Tickets have popular prices of BRL 30 (full ticket) and BRL 15 (half ticket) and can be purchased at the CCBB box office or in advance at site. Students, over 65 years old and Ourocard customers pay half price.
Conceived by playwright Marcéli Torquato, the play has two versions, one from Wednesday to Friday, at 7.30 pm, for audiences aged 14 and over; and on Saturdays and Sundays, at 4 pm, with free classification. “It’s a spectacle for the family”, highlighted Marcéli, in an interview today (23) to Brazil Agency.
The songs in the show are based on the think music, “they are famous and known”, said Marcéli Torquato. Although the musical score is not part of the children’s repertoire, in particular, “they are very much part of the lives of the fathers and mothers. I think it will be tasty, ”she commented. The soundtrack is composed of Bahian music from all eras, highlighting Caetano Veloso, Ivete Sangalo, Margareth Menezes, Chiclete com Banana, Ara Keto, Luiz Caldas, Gerônimo, Timbalada, Armandinho, Dodô and Osmar, among other names.
The multiracial cast is composed of eight actors and actresses (Paulo Verlings, Aline Carrocino, Carolina Pismel, Ester Dias, Jorge Florêncio, Nando Brandão, Patricia Elizardo and Udylê Procópio) and four musicians: Guilherme de Menezes (guitarist and guitarist), João Marcos Freitas (drummer), Leandro Vasques (bassist) and Raoní da Silva (percussionist).
Fable
The text was commissioned from Marcéli Torquato by Paulo Verlings, the creator of the project, who came up with the idea that the show would take place during the Bahian carnival, whose protagonist was called Salvador, and be a love story. “It’s not a play that talks historically about carnival, with data and facts. It is a fable, a universe invented within a city called Ermo, which opened the doors to haste, where no one has time and there is no cultural good. The cultural asset of Ermo is work”, revealed the author of the show.
The protagonist arrives in this city in search of his girlfriend who disappeared on their wedding day. “Then, a journey begins, both to find that love and to try to rescue the city from the rush, from the lack of poetry, music. In this city there is no music, nobody sings, nobody sleeps, nobody dies, nobody is born. It is a city frozen in time”. Marcéli said that the tyrant who led the city of Ermo to this situation thinks that the city is advancing. But, in Salvador’s eyes, the city is at a standstill, frozen. The play makes a parallel with the lives of most people, whose days seem the same, with an incessant repetition of waking up, working, eating, sleeping. Marcéli considered that, perhaps, “within this perspective, we are somehow frozen, without mystery, without surprise, without chance”. That is, the days are repeated the same for people who say they don’t have time.
Another detail of the play is that the hearts of the citizens of Wasteland do not tundumalluding to the sound of the drum and carnival, but TIC Tac, counting time. At some point in the show, Salvador manages to discover the mystery that surrounds it and the residents’ hearts begin to beat normally. “When the hearts of the inhabitants of Badlands return to tundum, the city wakes up and they manage to defeat the tyrant and her assistant”. The tyrant has no name and is known as CEO. Her partner in the play is called the manager. “The two villains are the CEO and the manager, making fun of the corporate world”, revealed Marcéli.
Paulo Verlings clarified that the show “arises from my desire to bring up questions like: where are we putting our time, our work, our dreams? What quality of life are we having? How far do we lose this hand? The idea is to bring this discussion through this fable, which has Salvador’s carnival songs as a popular counterpoint”, said the actor.
After the season at CCBB RJ, the show can be seen at CCBBs Brasília, São Paulo and Belo Horizonte.
