Meet the main gay characters who marked national theater

the beginnings
Characters with conflicted sexuality began to emerge around 1860. More than 150 years ago, the Gaucho author José Joaquim de Campos Leão, known as Qorpo Santo, left the public confused. Qorpo Santo suffered from delusions and hallucinations, was admitted to asylums and was considered insane.

Which led him to write some of the most bizarre plays in Brazilian theater. Among them, “The Separation of Two Spouses”. The protagonist Esculápio is married to a woman, but later his romance with another man is discovered. Misunderstood in his time, today Qorpo Santo is considered the precursor of the Theater of the Absurd – a European movement of the 1940s, 50s and 60s – in Brazil.

In the 1880th century, vaudeville shows were already common here – a popular style in France, as well as in the USA and Canada, which would be the embryo of our Teatro de Revista. This, in turn, emerged in the middle of the century, and would experience its golden phase between 1950 and XNUMX.

The Teatro de Revista was a big cabaret with tropical colors, it had everything – including queers. It was there that the figure of the effeminate queer, today so criticized, and which survives on Brazilian TV, in comedy programs, was born. Vera Verão from “A Praça é Nossa”, Haroldo from “Chico Anysio Show” and the current Valéria from “Zorra Total” are direct heirs of the queers from Teatro de Revista.

Nelson Rodrigues & Plínio Marcos
From the 50s onwards, a theater appeared that denounced human and sexual neuroses. The great master of this aspect was, of course, Nelson Rodrigues (1912-1980). The playwright created masterpieces in theater and literature that exposed society's “tares”. Among them, the gay issue.

Thus, in the novel “Asfalto Selvagem”, from 59, the character Letícia is in love with her cousin, the wanton Engraçadinha. In another novel, “The Wedding”, from 66, the groom had an affair with another man – a two-year-old nurse. And in Nelson's theatrical plays, there is no shortage of gays, of different types: in “Perdoa-me por me Traíres”, from 57, there is an atmosphere between the students Nair and Glorinha; in “Toda Nudez Will Be Punished”, from 65, the young Serginho ends up running away in love with the “Bolivian thief”, who raped him in jail; and in “O Beijo no Asfalto”, from 60, Arandir suffers persecution because, allegedly, he kissed the mouth of a man who died after being run over. In the end, the revelation: Arandir discovers that he is the target of his own father-in-law's passion.

The great Brazilian author to address “marginal” themes was Plínio Marcos (1935-1999). In his plays, gay characters began to appear. Still in 58, he wrote “Barrela”, which tells the story of a boy who ends up in jail and ends up raped by his cellmates. The play was banned for 21 years.

In 66, Plínio puts together “Dois Perdidos Numa Noite Suja”, about Tonho and Paco, companions in a boarding house. The rivalry between the two ends up exploding at the end, when the submissive Tonho rebels and dominates the aggressive Paco, raping him. It was Tonho's revenge, who was constantly being called a fagot by Paco.

In 67, Plínio wrote “Navalha na Carne”, which narrates the duel between the prostitute Neusa Sueli, the gigolo Vado and the homosexual Veludo – played by Emiliano Queiroz, who had already played Tonho in “Dois Perdidos…”

Other pieces by Plínio with an LGBT nature: “A Mancha Roxa”, from 88, showed inmates who discovered they were HIV positive; and “O Assassinato do Anão do Caralho Grande”, from 95, denounced homophobia: a circus dwarf was killed, and the blame fell on the so-called “Bicha Lili” (played by Dénis Goyos in the unforgettable original production).
Still in the 60s, playwright from Minas Gerais José Vicente made “O Assalto” (69), where a frustrated bank employee tries to seduce a cleaner. It was remounted in 2004 by Teatro Oficina.

The letdown of the 70s
In the 70s, the doors were kicked down once and for all and the theater became a stage for sexual demonstrations. At the beginning of the decade, the Dzi Croquettes shook the scene with their show that mixed humor, dance, show and cabaret. The dazzling dancers, half-naked and covered in glitter, in high heels, fascinated the public – who rushed to the theater, a place where it was difficult to breathe away from the truculent military dictatorship.

And until it was time to breathe a little: the national production of the American text “Os Rapazes da Banda” (1972), about a group of gays who “rent” a bus, was a success, bringing in actors at the beginning of their careers: Dénis Carvalho, Osmar Prado and Tony Ramos, as well as veterans Walmor Chagas, Raul Cortez and John Herbert.

Another craze was the musical “Hair” (performed in Brazil in 70), which, although not exactly gay, had a libertarian aura – with the famous collective nudity scene.

Another hit from the period: “Greta Garbo, Quem Diria, Acabou no Irajá” (73). Raul Cortez played the nurse Pedro, a lonely guy obsessed with Greta Garbo and trying to win the love of the drug-addicted boy Renato (Mário Gomes). Ítalo Rossi also starred in this production, in the 1978 season, and Raul Cortez reassembled the text in 1993, with Eduardo Moscovis as Renato.

Raul, by the way, was a pioneer. In 1969, he played a transvestite in the play “Os Monstros”, and in the transgressive classic “O Balcão” (70), by Frenchman Jean Genet, he starred in the first male nude in national theater – just before “Hair”.
In 1978, Emiliano Queiroz returned to play a gay man on stage: this time, he was Geni, the cursed queer from the musical “Ópera do Malandro”, by Chico Buarque, whose theme is “Geni and the Zeppelin”.

“A Gaiola das Loucas” had already been produced in 74, but in its original version – that is, not musical. Jorge Dória directed and starred in it with enormous success. The same goes for “The Kiss…”. In 84, Rubens Corrêa and Ivan de Albuquerque played inmates Molina and Valentim in the non-musical version of the text.

Years 80
The 80s saw modern times, with the end of the dictatorship in Brazil, in 85. The theater took advantage of the wave and let the bibas enter for good.

One of the classics of the period: “Lobo de Ray-Ban” (87), with Raul Cortez – again! – playing a divorced man who gets involved with a boy. Christiane Torloni played his ex-wife. More than twenty years later, Torloni stars in the female version: “Loba de Ray-Ban” (2010): this time, she was the woman who gets involved with the young Maria Maya. Both texts by Renato Borghi.

Adaptations of texts such as “Querelle” (89, by Jean Genet, with Gerson Brenner and Rogéria) and “Giovanni” (86, with Caíque Ferreira and Hugo Della Santa living romance on stage) were also successful, and even Shakespeare was subverted: “ Romeo & Romeo” (84), by Ronaldo Ciambroni

Ciambroni wrote dozens of plays, including “Believe, a Spirit Lowered into Me”, running since 1998, about a gay man who dies but tries to “lower” a sexist straight man.

Years 90
Right away, in 90, Brazil welcomed the return of José Celso Martinez Corrêa and his Teatro Oficina. The director edited “As Boas”, by Jean Genet, with Raul Cortez – yes! – as Madame, and playing the Maids, Zé Celso himself, in addition to Marcelo Drummond.

Zé Celso's boyfriend for years, Marcelo became Oficina's first actor, causing a sensation by playing characters such as Hamlet, Boca de Ouro and Bacchus, always with a bisexual bias – a characteristic that came to define Zé Celso's theater.

Oficina's sexual energy exploded in bold montages full of nudity, sex – sometimes explicit – and hedonism, transforming the group's headquarters into a great center of liberation, including for the public – the montage of “O Banquete” (2010) reached having groups of male spectators who were naked in the middle of the audience. Classic productions from Oficina, all dealing with gay issues: “Hamlet” (93), “Bacchantes” (96) and “Santidade” (2007).

In the more traditional theater, the 90s saw gay foreign texts being staged here. “The Best of Man” (95, by American teenager Carlota Zimmermann), in a production by Ulisses Cruz, starring Rubens Caribé and Milhem Cortaz; “Shopping and Fucking” (99, by Mark Ravenhill) was directed by Marco Ricca; “Poor Superman”, by Canadian Brad Fraser, had an anthological production in 2000, starring Marco Antônio Pâmio as a gay man and Olayr Cohan as a transvestite.

Global actors also took risks in gay roles in theater: Alexandre Frota and Fábio Assunção starred in “Blue Jeans” (91, directed by Wolf Maya, about the world of michês, with Carlos Loffler stealing the show as a transvestite who voices Gal Costa); Edu Moscovis was a sensitive gay man in “Norma” (2000); Tuca Andrada plays the gay dance teacher in “Seis Aulas, Seis Semanas” (2010). In 1991, Edson Celulari surprised by playing “Caligula”. In Djalma Limongi Batista's stunning production, the actor was completely naked and “attacked” men and women – including the then nymph Gabriel Braga Nunes, also naked and gay on stage.

Years 2000
Theatrical groups begin to frequently address the LGBT universe. Cia. Os Fofos Encenam puts together the small epic “Deus Sabia de Tudo e Não Fez Nada” (2001) and Os Satyros dominate Praça Roosevelt with plays such as “Transex” (2005) and “Os 120 Dias de Sodoma” (2006) . Veteran writer and activist João Silvério Trevisan comes with “Hoje é Dia de Amor” (2007), where a naked and chained Gustavo Haddad plays the slave SM, while Gilberto Gawronski plays Andy Warhol in the celebration “Pop” (2000).

Gaúcho Gawronski had already been a pioneer when editing “Dama da Noite” in 97, a story by writer and fellow Gaucho Caio Fernando Abreu (1948-1996). The text has already received several reassemblies, just as Caio's complete work has been frantically assembled and reassembled over the last ten years.

“Requiém Para um Rapaz Triste” (2007), a monologue with Rodolfo Lima, is one of them, bringing together several texts by Caio. On stage, the actor plays Alice. Afterwards, the actor directed “Bicha Oca” (2009), based on the author Marcelino Freire.

In the last ten years, hundreds of thousands of Brazilian plays have addressed LGBT issues. It would be impossible to list them all. We are left here, asking: what about the future, what does it hold for Brazilian gay theater? Make your bets.

Timeline
1860 – Aesculapius in “The Separation of Two Spouses”
1960 – Arandir in “The Kiss on the Asphalt”
1967 – Veludo in “Navalha na Carne”
1973 – Pedro in “Greta Garbo, Quem Diaria, Acabou no Irajá”
1978 – Geni in “A Opera do Malandro”
1987 – Paulo in “The Wolf of Ray-Ban”
1991 – Caligula in “Caligula”
2000 – David and Shannon in “Poor Superman”
2007 – Michê in “Today is Love Day”
2010 – Seu Alceu in “Bicha Oca”