An announcement interrupts “Sabius, the Moleques”, halfway through the performance, and informs that the play by Gerald Thomas, 71, was only written at that time, showing the author and director’s method of creation as the scenes unfold. The revelation surprises and entertains the audience, in an example of theater talking about theater and thus getting closer to the audience, a hallmark of 2025.
In Grupo Galpão’s production of “(Um) Ensaio sobre a Cegueira”, the proximity is even more intimate. Fourteen people per session go on stage at the invitation of the actors. Blindfolded, they act as extras, under the direction of artists from the Minas Gerais company.
Additionally, in the style of an epic theater, the artists of the Minas Gerais troupe tell the story and manipulate the sets, lighting and soundtrack in front of the audience, in a Brechtian exhibition of artistic works.
On other stages, veterans of live performance have rummaged through trunks of memorabilia and created shows in which they engage with audiences through memories — and a healthy dose of nostalgia for days gone by.
Othon Bastos, 92, chose to recount his experiences in “Não Me Entrego, Não”, a mural of memories that debuted at Sesc 14 Bis, in the capital of São Paulo, in March, after a successful season in Rio. “What I like to do is be on stage. In the theater, you are directly connected to the audience, the reaction is immediate. Each session is a first, because the audience is different,” he said in an interview with Leaf.
In “Olhos nos Olhos”, Ana Lúcia Torre, 80 years old, also brings together memories to celebrate six decades of her career, in a dialogue between personal and theatrical life, to the sound of Chico Buarque.
During a meeting between friends with different personalities, Amir Haddad and Renato Borghi, both 88 years old, shared the stage of Sesc Consolação for the first time to talk about the pains and pleasures of life on stage.
Among the revelations were the disagreements between the founders of the Teatro Oficina, Zé Celso Martinez Corrêa, Borghi and Haddad.
The extract in which Borghi remembers the day he reached an agreement with Zé Celso to return to traditional theater and put aside the provocative and libidinous performances that the latter enjoyed and that the former rejected, is priceless. Shortly after the conversation, Borghi realized that the pact would not take place and the theatrical audacity continued on stage. “I put on my street clothes and left,” he said of the end of the partnership.
In “Senhora dos Afogados”, at the Oficina, the ode to the performing arts appears in two forms: in the intense dedication of the cast to the tragedy of Nelson Rodrigues and in the tribute to Zé Celso, whose image on a screen receives a standing ovation at the end of each show.
The partnership between Zé’s disciples and director Monique Gardenberg gives birth to a play that is not afraid to be considered “theater”, with actors and actresses who throw themselves on the ground, gnash their teeth and cannot escape the expression of hatred and fear, as Rodrigues loved. In the Oficina style, they also occupy all the spaces and invite the public to enjoy themselves as well.
Os Satyros, for its part, risked presenting a show with an avatar in place of the actors of the “Play to save the world”, created and written by Ivam Cabral and Rodolfo García Vásquez. The company itself, however, showed that artists still have their place in a world dazzled by artificial intelligence: the group kept in its repertoire the classic “The House of Bernarda Alba”, by Federico García Lorca, with 25 actors on stage.
Despite this, this year has not been spared from crises. At the beginning of the year, Antonio Araújo, artistic director of the São Paulo International Theater Exhibition, MITsp, announced that the event would take place in two, precisely to celebrate its tenth anniversary. Financial support difficulties led to a 50% reduction in international and national programming.
“We were hoping it would be a more robust commemorative edition. But we had a situation that was not favorable,” he said.
At the same time, companies such as Grupo XIX de Teatro and Mungunzá received eviction orders respectively from Vila Maria Zélia and from the space occupied by the Teatro de Container, in the center of São Paulo. “Elã”, directed by Isabel Teixeira, was the farewell piece of this last space after a short season at Sesc Pompeia. After a long impasse with the town hall, the company agreed to move to land on Rue Helvétia, but in December it declared that it did not have the necessary resources to transfer its structure to the new address.
In the case of the Teatro Ventoforte, in Parque do Povo, in the west zone, there was no threat but rather a real act: the construction was demolished by the municipal management and motivated a mobilization of artists.
Separately, those responsible for Teatro Bravos, in Pinheiros, West Zone, announced that the space will close its activities from January next year and will be used for events and training for health professionals.
The disagreement once again went beyond the backstage of the Municipal Theater, with an ideological war that became more evident from September onwards. It was at that time that Ricardo Nunes (MDB) requested the cancellation of the contract with Sustenidos, the social organization that manages the theater, after an employee of the institution celebrated on his social network the assassination of the Trumpist influencer Charles Kirk.
Behind this lies the dissatisfaction of some conservative councilors with Sustenidos’ vision of culture – and even theater employees. Among several confusions with the artistic authorities of the house, one led to the temporary withdrawal of double bassist Brian Fountain, after having criticized, on the Internet, the production of the opera “Macbeth”, booed by the public during the premiere.
The town hall returned to the termination of the contract and a notice was published in December to define the new direction. But the demonstration was suspended last week by the municipal Court of Auditors, after criticism of the text. The series is expected to continue from there in the first weeks of 2026.
There was turbulence which contrasted, throughout the year, with the opening of new theaters – such as the Teatroiquè, in Butantã; the Baccarelli Theater, the first concert hall in Heliópolis, intended to host operas, ballets, films and, of course, plays; and the Teatro Manás, in Bexiga, which also functions as a dramatic laboratory, with experiments, rehearsals and classes.
A renovation and renaming brought back the former Teatro Alfa, in Santo Amaro, south of São Paulo, today called BTG Pactual Hall, in reference to the sponsoring bank. Something similar happened at the former Eva Herz Theater, Conjunto Nacional, reopened as Teatro Youtube, Conjunto Nacional.
And, in the central region of São Paulo, IBT, the Brazilian Theater Institute, opened a 7,500 square meter cultural center with production rooms, rehearsals and classes.
And while the world said goodbye to Bob Wilson, one of the great directors of the last fifty years and who maintained strong relations with Brazil, another veteran of the stage, Miriam Mehler, celebrated her 90th birthday with the play “Under the sky of Paris” and summed up, in one sentence, the hope that animates professionals of the stage. “I always wonder: What’s next? Something is going to happen.”
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