The season of the play “Morte e Vida Severina” in São Paulo, at the Sesc Pinheiros, marks a new stage for the Companhia Ensaio Aberto. This is a phase in which the group can leave its headquarters, Armazém da Utopia, in Rio de Janeiro, and go to meet audiences in other states.
Until recently, this was impossible. Located in the port area, the century-old warehouse has been occupied by the theater troupe for 15 years, but it took a lot of persistence to seize the space, evade eviction attempts and secure resources for the restoration, completed last year.
“Even after the legalization of the property, they continued to try to get us out of there, in the most deceitful way imaginable. So we couldn’t do a tour, because if we did a big tour we risked losing our warehouse,” explains director Luiz Fernando Lobo. “Now we are back to normal.”
“Morte e Vida Severina”, the masterpiece of João Cabral de Melo Neto, has been part of the company’s repertoire for 20 years as one of the shows closest to one of the group’s objectives: communication with all types of audiences.
“He communicates very strongly with the intelligentsia, but he communicates very strongly with the working classes, with anyone,” specifies the director. The play testifies to Armazém da Utopia’s characteristic of being a popular space and also to the group’s quest to expand its theatrical audience.
Companhia Ensaio Aberto has 15 exclusive artists and organizes free public workshops to choose new actors for each show.
“There is always new blood in the neighborhood. The company, and this is a matter of principle, never remains closed in on itself. Theater groups, in general, are very closed, very autophagic. I think this circulation is important,” says Lobo.
The spirit of renewal is present in “Death and Life”, with 25 actors and four musicians on stage. The director remembers a dialogue between João Cabral de Melo Neto and Vinícius de Moraes to respond to the efforts to popularize the work, presented in the form of a musical comedy.
“Vinicius met João Cabral and praised the play. João said: oh, Vinicius, but I didn’t write for people like you,” he recalls. “So, in fact, there is no effort to be made,” he adds, mentioning the text.
The music of Chico Buarque, who granted the production rights, as well as the heirs of João Cabral, obviously helps to communicate with the audience who, in São Paulo, applaud even in an open stage after the musical numbers.
The saga of the North-East migrant confronted with poverty and death currently symbolizes, according to the company, the journey of all those who must leave their place of origin in search of better living conditions.
“Today, the hunger points are located in large metropolises, such as Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, New York, Paris and Berlin,” explains the director. “The demographics of hunger have changed, but they haven’t gone away.” Just like the concentration of land, the violence in the countryside and in the city, the expulsions of inhabitants from their places and the ambushes have not stopped.
For the first half of 2026, the company is preparing the rebroadcast, in Rio, of the play “O Dragão”, by Eugène Schwartz, a fable about freedom and tyranny, written in 1943, at what we call midnight of the century.
It is also planned to return to São Paulo with other pieces from the repertoire, such as “Olga”, a documentary show about the life of Olga Benário Prestes (1908-1942), the communist activist married to Luís Carlos Prestes and delivered to Hitler by Getúlio Vargas, when she was seven months pregnant.
“Coming regularly to São Paulo is very important because, in a way, the cultural center is even more here than in Rio,” explains the director of the group. The existence of a specialized press, reviews and a theater course also attracted the group.
In Rio, the company continues to participate in the revitalization process of the Rio port area, with a restored warehouse open to host other groups interested in epic theater.
Built in 1910, the warehouse is in the area known as Little Africa, where the Cais do Valongo slave trade took place. Today, the place is a reference point for the history of the black population and its liberation struggles.
Designed by architect and scenographer JC Serroni, the 7,417 square meter space houses the Vianinha Theater and four rooms, as well as the Bertolt Brecht Bar.
Companhia Ensaio Aberto maintains direct communication with registered groups and offers cheaper tickets to attract popular audiences. “This story that poor people don’t like theater is absurd. Our job is to democratize access and redistribute cultural stakes,” says Lobo.
The company has created strategies to subsidize tickets for school groups, local residents or workers. “With this, we have a very large audience, in all social classes. We have pierced the bubble.”
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